Members of Parliament and representatives of religious communities in Canada have come together to discuss the role of faith in governance.
The political and religious leaders commemorated the launch of the All-Party Parliamentary Interfaith Caucus with an online discussion to promote “dialogue between Parliamentarians and representatives and members of Canada’s religious communities on matters of shared interest and concern.”
Focused on religion’s role in addressing Canada's diverse challenges, the discussion addressed everything from poverty and environmental degradation to reconciliation and hate speech. The virtual forum, “The Value of Religion in Canada’s Democracy,” featured current and former Members of Parliament.
“At a time when our society is confronted by challenging truths about our history and the ongoing challenge of religious hatred and prejudice, how can ideas, principles and beliefs from religion help to strengthen democracy in Canada?” asked Elizabeth May, Parliamentary Leader of the Green Party of Canada and cochair, in a Facebook post two days before the Caucus launch.
Among other things, the informal Parliamentary body will organize social events “intended to familiarize Parliamentarians with the ideas, experiences, and representatives of Canada’s religious communities.”
The group will also focus on exchanging information and collaborating with “like-minded bodies in civil society in order to support other national and international initiatives aimed at promoting inter-religious understanding and working across the religious-secular divide.”
The Caucus is affiliated with the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, which brings together 41 faith communities and religious organizations that “advocate for religion in a pluralistic society and in Canadian public life” to “contribute positively to the benefit of all people in Canadian society.”
“No one involved in the online discussion questioned the need for Canada to have a secular form of politics, but all involved talked about how a person’s faith does inform who they are, what they believe and what their politics are,” noted a news report in The B.C. Catholic, a weekly publication of the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver.
“Faith plays a positive role in people wanting to get involved in their communities and wanting to get involved in public policy,” said Daniel Blaikie, Member of Parliament from Manitoba who cochairs the Interfaith Caucus. “What I hope is that we can implement a dialogue among different faiths.”
Among those who participated in the June 16 discussion was Mobina Jaffer, who is Canada’s first Muslim and African-born senator and the first of South Asian descent. Jaffer, who represents British Columbia, raised the issue of Bill 21, a controversial 2019 law in Quebec that forbids public servants such as teachers, police officers and judges who are deemed to be in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols at work.
Although the law “prevents Muslims from looking like Muslims,” Jaffer pointed out, the bill serves little purpose as interfaith dialogue demonstrates that people from different religious communities and traditions have more in common with each other than the differences that set them apart.
“Our practices and traditions may differ,” she added, “but our values are often the same.”
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