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In R v Big M Drug Mart Ltd 1985 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Lord's Day Act for violating section 2 of the Charter and infringing on the right to freedom of conscience and religion. The Court ruled that there was no true secular basis for the Lord's Day Act and its only purpose was to establish a state religious-based requirement, and was therefore invalid.

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Challanges to the Charter: Lord's Day Act

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In Loyola High School v Quebec 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada held that the provincial government's decision to force the teaching of Catholicism from a neutral standpoint by a government mandated course on religion and ethics unreasonably violated religious freedom.

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Canadian Jesuit school fights government for curriculum...

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In Ktunaxa Nation v British Columbia 2017 the Supreme Court of Canada held that freedom of religion protects people and their actions but not the sites where religious ceremonies occur. A religious connection cannot be invoked to establish title to lands.

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Ski resort development free to proceed on sacred First Nation land

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In three provinces Trinity Western University argued that their law school graduates should not be refused automatic accreditation by the Law Society based on the Community Covenant Agreement of their school because it violates the students' rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. The Supreme Court decided that TWU's Community Covenant would deter LGBT students from attending the proposed law school and that equal access to legal education and diversity in the legal profession is in the public interest.

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The federal government has banned any employer from receiving summer job grants for students if the employer doesn't first sign an attestation that they agree with abortion and transgender rights. This automatically excludes all faith-based organizations that are traditional on their values of human life and sexual morality. Many oppose the attestation on the principle that it violates the Charter's right to religious freedom.

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Freedom of religion disappearing in Canada

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Freedom of religion disappearing in Canada

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This recent column by a retired judge discusses how the federal governments "freedom of choice" summer job grant policy and the Supreme Court's Trinity Law School decision show that intolerant thinking is back in its full fury. "[A]t one time it was the religious authorities who were the thought police. In that not so distant past, religious law trumped everything else. [...] This theocratic thinking still applies in less developed parts of the world, such as Iran. [...] Now, it seems that such intolerant thinking is back in its full fury. This time, however, the thinking we are being required to bow down to is some strange Gospel of the Secular, as interpreted by unelected judges, and a self-described feminist Prime Minister, who both insist on telling all of us what we must think."

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Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all Canadians in the Charter of Rights and Freedom. The Charter has taken two major blows recently - one from a recent policy change implemented earlier this year by the Trudeau government, the second from our Supreme Court.

The first blow came when the federal government announced that any group wishing to apply for summer job grants had to sign an agreement that they pledged to follow the Liberal Party's official policy on a woman's "freedom of choice" with respect to abortion.

The second blow came with the Supreme Court's decision in the Trinity Law School case - namely that they would allow provincial Law Societies to override religious choices made by candidates who freely chose to abide by the religious principles of certain Christian law schools, as a condition of entry.

Abortion is, and always has been, a sensitive topic for governments and courts. Most modern and democratic countries have resolved the complex topic by allowing unrestricted freedom of choice to a pregnant woman during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Thereafter there are restrictions.

There is no such law in Canada. In fact, there is no law about abortion at all. Our politicians find the issue too difficult to deal with. In spite of the fact that there is no law, Canadian women can obtain abortions relatively easily in the first few months of the pregnancy, but if a woman was able to find a practitioner crazy enough to abort her fetus one day before she was scheduled to give birth, there are no law forbidding it.

This is a preposterous scenario, and it is doubtful that something so extreme would ever occur. But - and this is the truly outrageous part - this is the position that present federal policy requires religious groups to sign onto. An absolute and unrestricted freedom to abort right up to the moment of the actual delivery of the baby. Failure to agree to this extreme position means that the groups won't be eligible for grants of their own tax money. It should come as no surprise that many religious groups cannot, in good conscience, sign the form.

The irony in all of this is that at one time it was the religious authorities who were the thought police. In that not so distant past, religious law trumped everything else. Apostasy laws, blasphemy laws and the like - based on how religious authorities interpreted the Bible - told everyone how to think. This theocratic thinking still applies in less developed parts of the world, such as Iran. There religious leaders tell people how they must think. But in the West, brave enlightenment thinkers forced the church to give up that absolutism and allowed people to think for themselves.

Now, it seems that such intolerant thinking is back in its full fury. This time, however, the thinking we are being required to bow down to is some strange Gospel of the Secular, as interpreted by unelected judges, and a self-described feminist Prime Minister, who both insist on telling all of us what we must think.

What happened to the enlightenment?

- Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and senior fellow with Frontier Centre for Public Policy

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GIESBRECHT: Freedom of religion disappearing in Canada

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Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all Canadians in the Charter of Rights and Freedom. The Charter has taken two major blows recently - one from a recent policy change implemented earlier this year by the Trudeau government, the second from our Supreme Court.

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The Sikh community has urged provincial governments to grant motorcycle helmet exemptions in recognition of their religious expression. Sikh soldiers refused to wear helmets during World War I and World War II fighting for freedom including freedom of religion. It would be wrong to deny someone the ability to ride because of their religious belief.

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The new Québec government is planning to bar civil servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols such as the kippa or hijab. The prospective new law could be tested in Court against the Charter.

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Fatima Ahmad has been dreaming about becoming a teacher since she was a little girl.

At age six, she wrote down the aspiration in her diary, along with two other options: doctor and artist. Ultimately, she chose teaching.

"I love kids, and it was just natural," she said.

Ahmad, now an undergraduate student in McGill University's faculty of education, is only a few years away from making her dream a reality. But it may need to happen outside Quebec.

The new Coalition Avenir Québec government, which won a majority in last month's election, is planning to bar civil servants in positions of authority, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols such as the kippa or hijab.

Ahmad wears a niqab, a Muslim garment that covers her hair and face. She wears a hijab, which shows her face, when teaching elementary school children.

"Children are very open, they are very curious. They ask questions," she said, stressing that she's in the classroom to teach, not "preach."

Majority of Quebecers back ban

Premier François Legault's government isn't expected to table legislation on religious symbols until next year, after a round of consultations.

However, an opinion poll released Monday, ahead of the legislative session that starts today, is likely to give fuel to the CAQ's plan.

Living in Quebec and Canada I thought that most people, they were open, and they were for freedom of choice and freedom of religion. - Fatima Ahmad

The CROP poll, taken between Nov. 14 and 19, estimated that 72 per cent of Quebecers supported banning visible religious symbols for judges, 71 per cent supported banning them for prosecutors and police officers and 65 per cent backed extending the ban to public-school teachers.

Ahmad called the poll results "disappointing."

"Living in Quebec and Canada I thought that most people were open, were for freedom of choice and freedom of religion," said Ahmad, who was born in Montreal. Her father is from Bangladesh.

A separate survey, conducted recently by Vox Pop Labs, which operates Vote Compass for CBC and Radio-Canada, suggested Quebecers are more divided about what religious symbols teachers should be allowed to wear in the classroom.

The kippa was opposed by 49 per cent, the turban by 51 per cent, the hijab by 52 per cent, and a large cross by 53 per cent.

Several unions representing teachers, as well as school boards, have come out against the ban as well.

"Targeting individuals based on what they wear and their personal religious beliefs feeds intolerance, and is in complete opposition to the very values of tolerance and inclusion that teachers promote in their classrooms every day," Peter Sutherland, the head of the Montreal Teachers Association, said in a statement last month.

Years of uncertainty

Like other religious minorities in Quebec, Ahmad has faced anxious moments in recent years.

She spoke out after the previous Liberal government made a law that required Quebecers to leave their faces uncovered in order to receive public services.

That portion of the law is still before the courts, subject to a constitutional challenge.

With the CAQ promising to go further, Ahmad is weighing her options ahead of her expected graduation in 2020.

She concedes, though, that she may not be able to teach in her home province.

"I think it would be very difficult to do so if this bill is passed," she said.

"It would limit me to private Muslim schools. I will most likely have to go out of Quebec to find work."

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Aspiring teacher may leave Quebec if CAQ follows through on religious symbol ban | CBC News

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Fatima Ahmad has been dreaming about becoming a teacher since she was a little girl. At age six, she wrote down the aspiration in her diary, along with two other options: doctor and artist. Ultimately, she chose teaching. "I love kids, and it was just natural," she said.

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Canada sets the example for freedom of religion. We need to develop our global partners to ensure that freedom of religion is universal. Canada says China must "end prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief." While we enjoy freedom of religion is it ethical to do business with countries that do not uphold the basic freedom?

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Canada has publicly accused China of repressing Muslims amid a "deterioration of human rights."

China must "end prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief," Tamara Mawhinney, Canada's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Tuesday as China was subjected to a rare moment of global scrutiny before the UN Human Rights Council, which examines each country's treatment of its people every five years.

Ms. Mawhinney called on Beijing to "release Uyghurs and other Muslims who have been detained arbitrarily and without due process for their ethnicity or religion." Canada, she said, is "deeply concerned by credible reports of the mass detention, repression and surveillance of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang," referring to the region in western China where, Western scholars have estimated, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been incarcerated in centres for political indoctrination and skills training.

The United States, too, on Tuesday urged China to "abolish all forms of arbitrary detention, including internment camps in Xinjiang."

The public censure marked a new step in the international condemnation of Chinese conduct in what Beijing calls an "anti-extremism" campaign.
Related: Inside China's campaign against the Uyghurs Read more: The Globe's Nathan VanderKlippe recounts surveillance, threats of arrest, destruction of photos while reporting in Xinjiang
But criticism levelled by a smattering of democratic countries - Croatia, Japan and Switzerland among them - was all but drowned out by a chorus of flattery for Beijing.

More than 150 countries signed up to speak on Tuesday, and dozens of them - from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America - used their allotted 45 seconds to compliment China for fighting poverty, combatting corruption, encouraging entrepreneurship, responding to climate change, reducing smog, expanding forests, opposing double standards in human rights, imposing low tariffs on imports, providing radio broadcast coverage to virtually its entire population and penning a "high-quality" report on its own human rights.

Bangladesh marvelled at "the development miracle of China." North Korea commended Beijing "for its strenuous efforts and brilliant success made for the promotion and protection of human rights." South Africa called China "a global leader on people-centred development and poverty eradication, as well as a formidable defender of multilateralism."

"We particularly congratulate China on its economic and social achievements, which are extraordinary," added a delegate from Burundi, who recommended "that China continue to focus on terrorist organizations" such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. China has cited that separatist group as a security threat in Xinjiang, where Beijing has in recent years built a network of incarceration centres amid an intensive campaign against what it calls extremism.

Inside such centres, authorities force the disavowal of religion and recitation of loyalty to the Communist Party and Chinese President Xi Jinping, former detainees have said. Residents of the region say fears of detention without trial are so widespread that religious observance has largely been halted in a region that makes up a sixth of the Chinese land mass.

But even among Muslim countries, China received little criticism on Tuesday, underscoring the influence it has amassed as the world's second-largest economy and an increasingly important global source of trade, foreign investment and aid.

Indonesia commended "China's strategic approach" to ensuring the "well-being of its population." Malaysia pointed to China's "many achievements in human rights." Kuwait suggested Beijing focus "on the prevention of juvenile delinquency to ensure minors' physical and psychological health." Saudi Arabia recommended China "continue friendly exchanges in the field of cultural and religious issues." Syria urged China to counter "extremist religious movements and continue its struggle against terrorism and separatism." Pakistan said China should "continue its efforts to maintain and promote peace and stability."

The upbeat assessment is "partially a reflection of China's economic clout amongst these countries, but also its leadership role amongst countries that are actively trying to undermine human-rights standards," said Frances Eve, a researcher with the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Among Muslim countries, only Turkey spoke out strongly against Chinese practices that involve "restrictions on basic rights and liberties, like confinement of individuals without any legal grounds, and their separation from families and society."

More forceful denunciations of China's conduct came largely from Western governments. Switzerland said it is "concerned about repression," and demanded the closure of what it termed "re-education centres" in Xinjiang. France called on Beijing to "put an end to mass internment in camps" and guarantee freedom of religion. Germany said China should "end all unlawful detention, including unconstitutional mass detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang."

"Despite China's best efforts - through propaganda and platitudes - to reduce the [UN review] to fawning adulation, numerous states expressed serious concerns," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.

Yet critical voices were accorded so little time - in part because so many countries registered to speak - that much of the discussion of Xinjiang came from Chinese delegates themselves, who used the UN review to dismiss negative commenters as "full of some prejudice."

China, one delegate said, protects religious rights, and forced political indoctrination is a "defence guarding against the infiltration of terrorism and extremism."

Detaining people for education and training is a way "to protect the human rights of the majority of people. And for these people themselves, this is a way to save them," another Chinese delegate added.

In Xinjiang, "the biggest concern of the population is stability. They don't want terrorism, they want economic development," a third delegate said. He described the "training centres" as places where detainees can learn vocational skills and "have good remuneration through labour."

Those in detention "have never thought that life could be so colourful and so meaningful," he added, before concluding: "Xinjiang is a nice place. Welcome to Xinjiang."

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Canada, Western countries condemn China at UN for repression of Muslims

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Canada has publicly accused China of repressing Muslims amid a "deterioration of human rights." China must "end prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief," Tamara Mawhinney, Canada's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Tuesday as China was subjected to a rare moment of global scrutiny before the UN Human Rights Council, which examines each country's treatment of its people every five years.