National Defence committee  When someone is called to be a chaplain in the armed forces, or a chaplain anywhere for that matter, they're doing it, fundamentally, to serve the people they minister to. Those people, especially CAF personnel, who have a deep religious faith. It could be a theistic faith. It could be atheistic philosophy or another philosophy.

National Defence committee  Could you clarify your question?

National Defence committee  That's correct.

National Defence committee  The chaplain who is there has to be able to engage people of other faiths, but that doesn't mean that they drop their own faith. They have to be able to engage them from their faith tradition, out of love, out of concern and to demonstrate genuine pastoral care.

National Defence committee  We have to recognize that at the core of all these different religious traditions, particularly the Abrahamic faiths, there's an understanding of the inherency of human dignity. While a particular religious tradition might have a different view of anthropology or of sexuality, at the core—certainly of the Christian tradition, the Jewish tradition and the Islamic tradition—is an understanding of the dignity of the human person.

National Defence committee  No, it does not.

National Defence committee  No, it does not, unless they have a theological formation. Someone could have a social work background but also have a theology degree, so they could be ordained but certainly not with exclusively a social work background.

National Defence committee  I think, again, I would really hold up the work of the chaplaincy service, but that chaplaincy service needs to be broadened. It needs to reflect the greater religious diversity in the country. I would certainly favour the expansion of that chaplaincy service to reflect different beliefs and different religious traditions.

National Defence committee  I don't know if it's in the name of secularism. It's in the name of something. I think certainly some of the recommendations that have come forward recently, which I referenced in my remarks, are problematic, because they would effectively exclude from the chaplaincy service a large swath of religious traditions that maybe do not conform with particular views that are being advanced.

National Defence committee  I can't comment necessarily on how it has impacted the Canadian Armed Forces, but certainly, in terms of society, StatsCan has demonstrated in its crime reporting survey that there have been increases in anti-religious hate crimes, particularly against Jews—anti-Semitism continues to be a major problem in the country—and certainly there's a significant increase in anti-Catholic hate crimes.

National Defence committee  No, they did not do their due diligence. I would recommend that they should have consulted more religious leaders, certainly a broader range of religious traditions that are represented in the country, and they could have had maybe a bit of a broader view on the importance of the chaplaincy service and how it could be strengthened.

National Defence committee  In terms of the role of chaplains, chaplains provide pastoral care, and it doesn't stop once you're outside the armed forces or if you're not yourself an armed forces member but you're part of an armed forces family. The chaplain or padre can play a major role, often when there's not easy access to other religious leaders when serving or when on base.

National Defence committee  What is at risk is that you would marginalize significant portions of the Canadian population, and, by extension, the CAF population who adhere to certain religious traditions, who would effectively not be able to have chaplains were these recommendations to go forward.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank you and the committee members for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee this morning to speak about what I would see as an under-examined aspect of health and transition services provided to Canadian Armed Forces personnel and veterans, and that is their spiritual or pastoral care.