Religious Freedom in Canada 2015

REALity – Volume XXIV No.8 August 2015

WHEREAS the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides in two separate sections (S2 and S15) protection for religious rights;

AND WHEREAS the Canadian Human Rights Act provides protection in S3 for religious rights;

AND WHEREAS the federal and provincial Human Rights Tribunals do not objectively protect religious rights in their decisions;

AND WHEREAS the Supreme Court of Canada, in Trinity Western University v British Columbia College of Teachers in 2001, ruled that there is no hierarchy of rights under the Charter; and that there must be a balance of the differing rights established under the Charter;

AND WHEREAS special interest groups for homosexuals, which are similarly situated and protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights Act, demand that homosexual rights have priority over religious rights;

AND WHEREAS the special interest groups for homosexuals demand that freedom of religion be limited to its expression and its enactment only within religious premises and in private homes, and be excluded from public places and discourse; 

AND WHEREAS the demands of the special interest groups for homosexuals fail to properly and proportionally balance religious rights with homosexual rights under the Charter as required by the Supreme Court of Canada;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT federal and provincial governments, courts and Human Rights Tribunals protect, without discrimination, the right of freedom of religion, both expressed and acted upon openly and freely without restriction, throughout Canada so that this is properly balanced and protected by the Charter.