Christians in Canada are protesting against the Liberal government's suggestion that it might scrap the Office of Religious Freedom, which promotes religious liberty as a foreign office priority.
Established by the previous government, the department's funding runs out next month and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion has said that having an office exclusively for religious freedom would detract from Canada's overall human rights thrust. He told a foreign policy conference: "Human rights are interdependent, universal and indivisible. How can you enjoy freedom of religion if you don't have freedom of conscience? Freedom of speech? Freedom of mobility?"
However, both Catholic and Evangelical organisations have expressed alarm at the proposal. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's president Bruce Clemenger sent an open letter to Dion saying: "Religious freedom has been called the first freedom because where it is limited, so too are other rights. Religious freedom does not operate in isolation or to the detriment of other human rights. Its guarantee entails freedom of conscience, of speech, of expression and assembly."
The letter refers to the increasing incidence of religious freedom around the world and cites a Pew Research Centre survey showing more than three-quarters of the world's population was living with high or very high levels of restriction on religious freedom. It urges Dion to continue the Office's work.
A letter from Catholic Civil Rights League executive director Christian Elia said: "Canada cannot afford an abandonment of our strong commitment to freedom of conscience and religion at home and especially pursuing that objective abroad."
Dion's approach has also been criticised by other faith groups, including organisations representing Jewish, Sikh and Ahmadiyya Muslim Canadians.
Elia told LifeSite News the move reflected a "radical secularism". He said: "It takes a narrow view of pluralism that relegates religious belief to private life."
