The Conservative Platform on Freedom of Religion

The Conservative Party Platform released on Friday has a curious pledge to create an office within DEFAIT devoted to championing freedom of religion overseas and around the world. It was reported on Saturday that Ignatieff was initially at odds with others in his party on the issue, with Iggy saying that defending freedom of religion is consistent with Canadian values and deserves non-partisan support.

On the one hand Ignatieff was both entirely correct on freedom of religion being one of the fundamental rights in Canada, and his instincts to want to protect this is laudable. Moreover he came across as statesman-like in taking the position that he could support reasonable proposals in the Conservative Party Platform. It was a nice departure from the usual cat-fighting and gainsaying of a political campaign. On the other hand, the Conservative proposal does require consideration.

The Liberal MPs who initially criticized it did so primarily on the grounds that it was cynically motivated. The proposal was seen as nothing more than a crass attempt to win over communities of religious minorities within the electorate. That is obviously a difficult proposition to prove, of course, but it has to be said that religious freedom is a curious right for the Conservatives to champion.

Unlike other the other rights and freedoms that are the source of Canadian values, such equality rights or freedom of expression, the freedom of religion tends to be more complicated, in that it is more often in conflict and tension with other rights, like the right to equality, women's rights, and freedom of expression. What is more, it lies at the very epicenter of fault lines in cultural wars that are brewing not only abroad but at home. Just today, three days after the Conservatives released their Platform, the law banning the wearing of the niqab in France, the so called ban-the-burqa law, came into effect. The ban will certainly be challenged in the courts, and ultimately the European Court of Human Rights, but it is defended on the grounds of defending the equality and dignity of women. Will a Conservative government weigh in against the French for the apparent violations of the freedom of religion?

Farther afield, there is a huge fight brewing over a new U.N.General Assembly Resolution on the defamation of religion. It is a move towards authorizing laws prohibiting the criticism of established religions. Most human rights scholars and activists see this as a move by some Islamic countries to significantly undermine the freedom of expression with respect to religious doctrine. The West was deeply opposed to the move. How will a Conservative government, pledged as it has to defend and champion freedom of religion, come down on this issue?

Closer to home, this week there have been protests over a Vancouver by-law that sought to prevent the Chinese religious group Falun Gong from holding a vigil outside the Chinese consulate. The flames of protest were fanned last week by the discovery that the Chinese government had been consulted on the language of the by-law. China has been the subject of intense international criticism for its repression and persecution of the Falun Gong. How would a Conservative government, with this newly established pledge to champion freedom of religion, deal with this issue?

Not to mention the whole accommodation debate that has wracked Quebec! Before a Conservative government can go tilting at windmills in foreign lands, it will have to deal with the movement within Quebec to curtail the religous freedoms of members of the communities of religious minorities in Quebec - the very same communities that this Platform pledge is presumably seeking to woo.What is more, the Conservative Party of Canada has itself typically been on the wrong side of this issue. Just two months ago, a Tory MP came out in favor of banning Canadians wearing a veil from voting, saying that "voting is an important right" and that "it has to be done decently." Seriously. Decently. Notwithstanding that when the issue erupted in the last election, there wasn't even a requirement to show picture identification.

So at the end of the day, it is a very curious freedom for the Conservatives to have latched on to. It has the potential to wrong-foot Canada in its foreign relations in a number of different contexts. It is a freedom that is often at odds with rights and values that we may want to do more to protect, such as equality rights and freedom of expression. And meanwhile, there is little evidence that the Conservatives are likely to do anything to really protect the freedom of religion of minority communities right here at home. So there is good reason to be suspicious of the motives underlying this Party platform. - CM