Justice committee  Thank you so much for the question. That's almost precisely the question we asked ourselves on the video conference call on Friday to prepare for this meeting. The most convincing response was that there is something distinctive about the religious experience. The world of reli

Justice committee  Yes, just briefly. I think it depends also on the religious tradition or the severity of the concern. If you talk with the Coptic Orthodox community, for example, who have been targets especially in their home country on a variety of issues like that, they are quite alert, aware,

Justice committee  You can go first, Bruce and Julia.

Justice committee  The Canadian Council of Churches is a full consensus organization, so that means when the Canadian Council of Churches makes a public statement it needs to be agreed to by all the members of the council. Given the time available we weren't able to come to a conclusion or a consen

Justice committee  Yes, absolutely. Whether or not other sections of the Criminal Code cover it sufficiently or not, we're not really in a position...because, as you mentioned, it wasn't clear in the presentation of the bill and it wasn't widely circulated in advance. Many member denominations of t

Justice committee  Thank you. I'll be using prepared remarks that were circulated with the Canadian Council of Churches at the top, and speaking especially to clause 14 and the removal of section 176. Thank you for the invitation to appear as a witness in this committee. We appreciate your outrea

Human Resources committee  I support much of what was said earlier. But one of the statistics we mentioned in our brief is that 85% of Christians in Canada who self-identify as Christian attend churches that are members of the council. So that's quite a few people, and it puts some of the burden back on us