Protecting Religious Freedom in a Multicultural Canada

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These differences having been noted, when Canadian Muslims are asked if they are proud to be Canadians ninety four percent say they are(Seljak, par 5). When asked why Muslim Canadians say it is because of freedom, democracy and the multiculturalism. It is also the “fact that Canada is a caring and friendly country and the fact that it is a safe place to live” (Adams 95).

Greatest Sources of Pride in Canada

What is I about Canada that gives you the greatest source of pride?

Source: Environics Survey of Canadian Muslims, December 2006.

Muslim Canadians % citing All Canadians %Citing

Freedom/democracy 33 Freedom/democracy 27

Multiculturalism 17 Multiculturalism 11

Peaceful country 10 Peaceful country 6

Humanitarian/caring 9 Humanitarian/caring 9

Safe, low crime rate 4 safe, low crime rate 4

Tolerance/respect/ 3 quality of life 3

Table from (Adams 96)

In answering other questions, though, Muslims had concerns about discrimination, unemployment, under employment but even so over ninety percent believed that as a country Canada is on the right track. When asked if they perceived Canadians attitude towards their religion as hostile the answer was very few. In comparison with European countries, Canada had a score of 17, England 42, France 39, Spain 31 and Germany 51. The table does not say what size the target market was and these numbers are not marked as a percentage, merely on whether the Muslims asked said most or many (Adams 98).

As can be seen from Table 1, the growth in the Canadian population’s Christian religious groups in the ten years between 1991 and 2001 was 71% higher than Christian groups. This indicates that unless attitudes remain tolerant and the overall policy of Governments is secular possible problems of discrimination could arise.

Total numbers and growth between 1991 and 2001:

In Canada

Total

1991 total

2001 total

Percentage Growth

Total Canadian population

26,994,040

29,639,035

+ 09.8%

Christian

22,503,360 (83.3%)

22,851,825 (77.1%)

+ 01.5

Non-Christian

1,093,680 (4.1%)

1,887,115 (6.4%)

+72.5

No religious affiliation

3,397,000 (12.6%)

4,900,095 (16.5%)

+44.2

Sunday as a day of rest is discriminatory. The Founding Fathers of Canada declared Sunday a holiday from work in order that people could attend church. Other religions celebrate their faith on different days of the week forcing them to make changes if they want to get a larger community gathering. However, for many years now, shops and other activities have opened for business on Sunday making it a regular day of the week for the majority of the population. Seljak cites this as a form of structural discrimination or religious disadvantage. Structural discrimination can also be applied to the distribution of Government funds (Seljak par.11). Certain large, established Protestant churches receive tax relief but the smaller sects are not included in this arrangement. Religious schools do not always receive support from the Provinces even though Education is a basic right. However, public schools from kindergarten until grade twelve receive money from the government to function so in many people’s opinion these are the schools children should attend because they teach Canadian values. In some Provinces the Catholic schools receive funding from the government. As this makes a precedent some of the other religious orders think that they too should be supported. However, every child can attain an education free of cost to their family and while this could be considered prejudice against a specific religion, most Canadians would object to financing separate schools that are preaching a different curriculum based on ideology that is not universally accepted in a secular community such as Canada. This is a debatable point because of the precedent set by the Catholic School support however; Catholicism was one of the founding religions of this country and is Christian. In some European countries faith based schools have produced extremist fundamentalists and this is certainly not an institution the majority of Canadian tax payers would be willing to support, as it could make them feel less secure. As can be seen from Table above, 44% of the immigrants were not committed to any specific religion and they would obviously prefer a secular society. However, living within a religious, culture based society does form a sense of belonging and meaning for life. “How people can feel both free to be themselves and yet connected to others, autonomous yet guided by some sense of principle and common cause Is one of the great questions of postmodern secular societies” (Adams 147) is a question for all of us. It is not only language that draws communities together, it is shared cultural values which are why all of our cities have ethnic neighborhoods and within those neighborhoods they create their own places of worship. It is a way of creating a home amongst other people from far away because Canada is a country made up of immigrants, many leaving behind war, persecution on the grounds of their religion or other attributes, and also those seeking a better life.

Permanent Residents Admitted in 2010, by Top 10 Source Countries

Rank

Country

Number

Percentage

1