• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

VOL. 10 NO. 1 March 2007 Human rights challenges grow Churches urged to remain vigilant The League recently noted several human rights challenges that are about tax status loss accelerating the trend to marginalize the expression of religious beliefs. In There have been indications for several years that faith groups in Canada January, BC Human Rights Tribunal announced a settlement directing could expect to come under new scrutiny when their teachings, notably Kamloops city councilor John Di Cicco to pay $1,000 to a homosexual on same sex “marriage” or women’s rights, conflict with the law. League couple for comments he made about homosexual conduct. members first heard of this scrutiny in 2004 when we reported that Catholic and evangelical officials had been reminded by Revenue The pair, John Olynick and Greg Koll, filed a complaint with the Tribunal Canada to limit statements with political overtones, especially during which was accepted and was to go to the hearing stage. The settlement election campaigns. allowed Mr. DiCicco to avoid a Human Rights Tribunal hearing. The city will pay his legal fees, according to a report by Kamloops Daily News. More recently, a prominent Canadian public intellectual has set off alarm bells for suggesting the Catholic Church and other religions that don’t "In essence, in order to avoid further costs of a hearing, Mr. DiCicco has comply with so-called Canadian values should lose their charitable tax agreed to pay fees for making statements in a public forum that are status. reflective of the Church's teaching, which states that homosexual activities are "intrinsically disordered" said League President Phil Horgan. “This type The article appeared in the Fall 2006 edition of the Literary Review of of process exposes the serious challenges to freedom of expression and Canada by Janice Gross Stein, a political scientist who directs the freedom of religion that Canadians in all walks of life may face in response University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Affairs. A version of to comments based on deeply held religious belief. We can expect to see the article also appeared in the Winter edition of University of Toronto more challenges of this kind as the impact of same sex "marriage" Magazine. continues to play out in daily life, in areas such as governments, Entitled “Living Better Multiculturally,” and headlined “Whose schools and the workplace." values should prevail?” the essay raised a series of questions about multiculturalism and religious freedom, when There is also a disturbing trend in human rights religions have values that go against what Stein decisions on related subjects from this tribunal, such Mark your calendars: described as Canadian values or Charter values. as the BC Knights of Columbus hall rental case from last year, where the Knights were ordered to pay CCRL SPRING SOCIAL Focusing on equality for women, she wrote mostly fees for hurt feelings, despite having their rights Wednesday, June 6, 5 pm about her own Conservative Jewish synagogue and affirmed. We have also seen complaints against her efforts to change its traditional attitudes Bishop Fred Henry in Alberta, ultimately Charbonnel Lounge, towards women. She questioned whether religions withdrawn but only after great expense. University of St. Michael’s College, like her own should get charitable tax breaks. Toronto The League does not believe human rights “If religious institutions are able to raise funds more tribunals should be used to penalize the peaceable Reception with dinner to follow easily because governments give a tax benefit to expression of beliefs and opinions. We are also (Guest speaker to be those who contribute, are religious practices against concerned about the lopsided complaints process that confirmed) women a matter only for religious law, as is currently allows the aggrieved to file a complaint at little or no the case under Canadian law, which protects freedom of expense while the defendant may have to dig deep to religion, or should the values of the Charter and of human answer the complaint. rights commissions across Canada have some application when religious institutions are officially recognized and advantaged in We recognize that people need a process to address discrimination in fundraising?” she wrote. matters such as employment, housing and the provision of services. In “Does it matter that the Catholic Church, which has special entitlements fact, the ability to bring a complaint with little cost recognizes that given to it by the state and benefits from its charitable tax status, refuses complaints of genuine discrimination often involve an individual going up to ordain women as priests?” she asked. against a large company or organization. The League responded with a letter stating that such questions stem not However, it is also making it possible to penalize people for the expression from any real concerns about equality, but on the opposition of some faith of unpopular opinions, no matter that the same viewpoint was considered groups to certain aspects of the “liberal agenda.” Our letter also pointed mainstream until a decade ago and continues to be shared by a substantial out that in any loss of the Church’s charitable status, the real losers would Continued page 8 Continued page 5 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By Thomas Langan, KSS President Emeritus After reading the morning paper, one might begin to think that the struggles of the CCRL are really ludicrous: Here is China increasing its defense expenditure, Russia peddling arms all over the Middle East, Iran blithely moving towards atomic weapon capacity, and Africa remaining the stage of senseless massacres, while we deal in hurt feelings and defend the right to disapprove of homosexual behavior. Though vast numbers of people on this planet cherish life, defend and promote it with passion, humanly induced H 7 death looms darker than ever over us all. Minor folly, jealousy and hatred, the distress that leads to suicide, a C desire for power, safety and comfort unwittingly spread destruction on mankind at large. Given the present state of technology, this means an imminent danger of the total destruction of human life in this planet. Relative peace R 0 in our momentarily protected countries makes it difficult for us to face the horrid progression made in the last hundred years from tribal massacre to world wars to international terrorism. Before we become too smug, we A should consider soberly with what ease clashes between large nations, or more simply the frustration of peoples M 0 backed into a corner, could result in the use of nuclear weapons. Forty years ago, I was shown two reports commissioned by the US Government Arms Control Agency on the impact of a possible nuclear exchange between Russia and the USA. The optimistic one – by Rand - said people would probably survive in Patagonia. 2 The other said all human life would be extinguished on the planet. And much arms development has incurred in the last 40 years! Mankind can easily come to self-destruct while even informed individuals prefer to look away from this terrifying reality. The struggle between civilizations that foster death and civilizations that foster life has always been with us, rooted as it is in mankind’s strange propensity to evil; but it is now more dangerous than ever, having become planetary. Never has it been so necessary to educate a next generation sufficiently disciplined and clear thinking to tackle this challenge. It will have to believe in the ability of the human mind to find truth, and have the courage to look reality in the eye, however disagreeable. And it must have acquired the wisdom and the courage to deal with that it sees, even at great cost to itself, however impossible it may seem. Whatever our fellow citizens may think, this implies faith – even if not in God, at least in truth and in people - the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and the guts to take sides when circumstances demand it. At bottom, it implies recognizing the presence of evil in and around us, seeing it as an illness of the will, and mustering our freedom to fight it. The present tendency to silence the Church in Canada, to discourage it from taking stands on ethical or political issues, is but one of the dangerous moves made by our society to discourage such an education. It prefers breeding individualistic consumers, seeking the quickest path to success, loving to escape into virtual reality and preferring to let others go their merry way over seeking with them a better path to the common good, over acknowledging the presence of evil in ourselves and in them, and tackling this evil together. Not so strangely, such taught behavior breeds unexpectedly horrendous results. Well educated Christians with healthy hearts and minds are among the best hopes we have of navigating together the difficult planetary situation into which we are slipping. This, by the way, is the reason Churches have been granted tax exemptions by most states (see report, page one). Countries, especially democracies, need people driven by faith, hope and love to thrive. So let us not look down on our activity as CCRL members. Clear thinking Christians, when responding to contem- porary situations, do have a formative impact: The confrontation between Telus and Archbishop Roussin (report, page 7) is a case in point. This has always been true. Bishop Von Galen even managed to stop Hitler in his tracks when he defended from the pulpit the right to life of the mentally handicapped. Of course, he ultimately paid for this with his life. The courage to face this eventuality is part of the education the Church has always hoped to impart, and what mankind needs from its members if it wishes to survive.

Load more

  8

Copy Link