“Faith Under Attack in Canada?”

The full title of the April 1, Christian Today article is “Faith Under Attack in Canada? Religious Leaders Think So.” So there you have it: asked and answered. However, it seems that only one religious leader, (with testimony from a lawyer, André Schutten: “bought & owned by Christ”) answered the question: Charles McVety. That’s typical because whenever a group of Christian religious leaders gather together to whine and complain, McVety is among them.

It is a waste of time and space to list the examples McVety uses to plead his case.They are the same old, same old complaints of a Christian with a persecution complex.

André Schutten who “has the mandate of equipping the Reformed Christian community for political action on a broad range of issues,” cites “laws that ‘restrict or curtail the religious freedom of Canadians.'”

Today is a good day to examine McVety’s and Schutten’s complaints because today is Good Friday or Pious Friday, a statutory holiday in most Canadian provinces and territories. On Good Friday, the government restricts or curtails the freedom of Canadians by requiring banks, schools, government offices and large retail stores, among others, to close.

According to Wikipedia, “Some governments have laws prohibiting certain acts that are seen as profaning the solemn nature of the day.” If this surprises you, then you will also be surprised to discover that Canada has a blasphemy law.

So far, Canadian Christians like McVety and Schutten are using a UK publication to complain about the “attacks” on Christianity, but as long as Section 296: Blasphemous Libel, remains on Canada’s Criminal Code, McVety and Schutten could act on their threat:

“While other groups are being granted more and more rights, we’ve been losing ours. We are saying enough is enough. We cannot be silent anymore.”

Although,

Many legal opinions seem to suggest that a successful application of blasphemous libel is unlikely. Repeatedly, however, lawyers have indicated that this law is “sleeping, not dead”.

it is time to remove Section 296 from Canada’s Criminal Code.