Canadian Heritage committee  Very briefly, I think government can lead by example. Government can recognize, as parliamentarians, as leaders in the public service, that if you have a different view, that's perfectly acceptable. You have a right to hold that view. For example, Cardus, the think tank that I

Canadian Heritage committee  We have to be careful to not see first nations as an ethnic community. They have a particular place—

Canadian Heritage committee  There are certain strategies that are appropriate to particular situations. In engaging different communities where there are examples of discrimination, you have to address those specific cases and try to adopt a broad approach to encourage communities to engage one another and

Canadian Heritage committee  The first thing is for the committee to reaffirm the fundamental freedoms in section 2 of the charter. We have a charter of rights and freedoms, so we act on it. As I said, the government has a responsibility to uphold the charter. Second, where government does have jurisdiction

Canadian Heritage committee  It could be included in a national strategy, but again, in terms of where government plays a role of facilitating, in this country we have a representative democracy. You, as members of Parliament, have particular interests over and above that. You have political interests, and D

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't see it as a systemic issue. I would echo what Ms. Hassan said, which was that a lot of members of different communities where there is discrimination against that community have done very well—and Dr. Doobay used his own example—in Canadian society and have prospered econ

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. I would just say on pluralism that keeping genuine pluralism means that you have to allow all beliefs and expressions of belief to exist. You can't say that we have pluralism if you say, “As long as you ascribe to these beliefs, you're in the camp; if you don't, you're an

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not familiar with the two documents that you cite. Generally, however, elaborating on the idea of a deep and genuine pluralism, I would say that for a long time in our country we have privatized expressions of religious belief and that this privatization has led to an amnesia

Canadian Heritage committee  I think government can be a facilitator. I'm always a bit skeptical when government wants to have national action plans and legislate things too much. This is something that is embedded within our society. Government can play a role in facilitating dialogue, bringing communities

Canadian Heritage committee  Again, I don't see government as playing that role. I think government should allow for communities to function at a very local level, but then also, as one of the previous witnesses said, within governments, which is your particular purview, to ensure that people of religious be

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to appear to offer my thoughts on the issue before the committee: systemic racism and religious discrimination. My views are informed by my work as senior fellow at Cardus, Canada's faith-based think tank, where I focus on is