Human rights, religion and law

Former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, says it’s a myth that concerns about creed (i.e., religion) in Canada are a recent development.

“It’s fair to say that in the last few years, I’ve heard people remark, ‘You know, creed has never been an issue in Canada until (INSERT GROUP'S NAME HERE) group came and started raising it,” she said during a recent appearance at the University of Toronto.

“In the 50 years there has been a human rights commission, creed has been an issue.”

Hall and other commissioners visited U of T’s Multi-faith Centre recently as part of the commission’s process for updating the portion of its code relating to creed, a process that will take a few years.

The Multi-faith Centre partnered with the commission recently to host a pair of public lectures and a number of smaller consultations about the intersection of religion and law.

Hall served as host for the inaugural lecture and offered introductory remarks. She noted the process of updating the code will require extensive consultations with religious leaders, academics, politicians, lawyers and others.
“We’re really pleased to be here in partnership with the U of T Multi-faith Centre,” she said. “We address systemic issues and we know you need partnerships.

Staying Up to Date

Hall said that the world is a very different place than it was 15 years ago and there are issues related to creed that the public and employers encounter daily. Many best practices exist and the commission hopes to learn more about them during its consultations.

“What obligations do employers have to accommodate the religious holidays of their non-Christian staff?” she asked. “Exam time, food – there are all kinds of legitimate issues being raised that people want to assist in responding to.”

Simply defining creed is a challenge.

“It all comes back to what exactly is creed,” Hall said. “I read in the media that veganism and humanism should be included as creed.

“In the 15 years since the last version of the policy on creed, there have been several legal decisions that are not included. I want to make sure our policies reflect them, especially when other rights conflict with rights based on creed.”

Experts Share Views

Two experts in religion followed Hall on the program. With 100 people listening eagerly, alumnus David Seljak, chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo, discussed religious intolerance in a multicultural Canada and Winnifred Sullivan, a professor of law and director of the law, religion and culture program at the University of Buffalo, addressed the challenges of regulating religion.

“Intolerance and discrimination have a long history in Canada,” Seljak pointed out, citing examples such as the dismissal of aboriginal spirits, persecution of minority Christian groups such as the Mennonites, anti-Semitism reflecting an early wave of Jewish immigration and anti-Catholicism, something originally tied to anti-French sentiment.

“The solution was to pass legal protection and secularization, but this was led largely by [Protestant] Christians,” he said.

Today, by contrast, religion has become “privatized.” Seljak said it is now relegated to the personal sphere, rather than the political realm.

“Closed secularism can be just as unwelcoming as Christian Canada,” he noted.

“I suggest we work towards a broader, more inclusive definition of religion.”

Sullivan recounted the tale of a court case in Florida and said that it is important to “determine what counts as religion in any time and place.

“We live increasingly in a world of diaspora religious communities where all religion is governed by secular regimes. People are reinventing religion based on their circumstances.”

Inclusivity

A lively question and answer period followed, and audience members expressed their pleasure at being included.
“One thing I loved was that you look around and there is incredible diversity here,” said Erin Chatten, a fourth-year management and psychology student from U of T Scarborough.

Jesse D’Andrade, a psychology student and the president of UTSC’s Moral Atheists, agreed.

“Professor Seljak was talking about the need for dialogue and here we are having that,” he said.