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Analysis & Commentary
Some past clashes of church and state
The Catholic Church considered Wilfred Laurier the anti-Christ because he believed in a
separation of church and state. Bishops in Quebec warned parishioners repeatedly not to vote for
him, but he still managed to become Canada's first Roman Catholic prime minister in 1896. One of
his first acts was a bill allowing French-speaking Catholics in Manitoba to have a Catholic
education where numbers warrant. Twenty years earlier, when Laurier was just beginning his
political career, Roman Catholic clergy had tried to blacken the name of a Liberal candidate in a
Charlevoix byelection. Women were told not to have sex with their husbands if the men voted the
wrong way, Laurier LaPierre wrote in his 1996 biography of Laurier, and "children were made to
kneel and beg God that their parents not be damned should they have the temerity to vote for the
Liberal candidate. When electors asked directly whom they should vote for, the cagey priests
contented themselves with informing them that 'le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge' � heaven is
blue, hell is red."
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| Métis leader Louis Riel, circa 1873. (CP photo/Manitoba Archives) |
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Protestant English Canada howled for Louis Riel's blood after Riel�s supporters executed
Orangeman Thomas Scott for opposing the establishment of a Métis state in the Red River area of
what is now Manitoba. Quebec defended Riel and the Métis people until Riel�s increasingly
grandiose visions of reforming the Catholic church and establishing the papacy in Montreal
became too outrageous. After many other developments, he was tried for high treason in 1885
and hanged in November of that year.
In 1948, Joey Smallwood's pro-Confederation forces swayed Protestant Newfoundlanders to
vote for Confederation with Canada, partly by pointing out that the Roman Catholic Church was
backing the anti-confederate movement. Union with Canada passed in the second of two referenda
by a slim margin of 52.3%, while the alternative, independence under responsible government, was
the favoured option in predominantly Catholic regions of Newfoundland.
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In a move unthinkable before the Quiet Revolution, the Roman Catholic Church had to seek buyers for some churches in Quebec, like St-Jean-de-la-Croix in Montreal, because of rising costs and shrinking congregations. (CP photo)
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The power of the Roman Catholic Church to shape political, social and cultural life in
Quebec declined rapidly after the death of Maurice Duplessis in 1959. The next decade became
known as the years of "the Quiet Revolution," when pride in being French Canadian and separatist
feelings both soared. Author Richard John Neuhaus has written: "With stunning rapidity, paralleled
only by the Netherlands, Quebec went from being one of the most religiously observant societies
to one of the least observant. Schools, hospitals, and social services were rigorously
secularized; priestly vocations evaporated; Mass attendance plummeted; the churches were
emptied; and politicians and priests together declared the revolution a success."
Abortion and euthanasia have long been flashpoints for political action by religious
groups arguing that all life is sacred. The churches saw abortion as murder; the growing feminist
movement saw it as women taking control over their own reproductive systems. Starting in the late
1960s, Catholic and evangelical leaders demonized Montreal family physician Dr. Henry Morgentaler
for pushing to legalize abortion on demand. At the time, doctors convicted of attempting to induce
an abortion faced the prospect of life in prison, and the woman involved could be jailed for two
years. Reforms introduced by Pierre Trudeau made abortion legal in some circumstances after 1969.
In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada's abortion law as unconstitutional,
ruling that it infringed upon a woman's right to "life, liberty and security of person."
Church-affiliated groups continue to lobby for greater limits on abortion, but few politicians
in recent years have taken up the gauntlet in a serious attempt to change the law. Religious
groups have also argued against euthanasia, or the "mercy killing" of someone seen to be in
intolerable pain, on the basis that only God can choose to end a life. That debate came to a
head twice in the 1990s, over ALS patient Sue Rodriguez, who planned her own death rather than
let her family suffer with her through a prolonged decline into paralysis, and 12-year-old Tracy
Latimer, whose father Robert killed her because she suffered from a severe and painful form of
cerebral palsy.
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The morning after winning the Canadian Alliance leadership in July 2000, Stockwell Day and his wife Valorie headed off to church, their unwavering Sunday routine. (CP photo)
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During the 2000 election campaign, Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day found himself
defending his private views on how the world began. Day had previously served as a Pentecostal
pastor and the administrator of a Christian school. When the CBC reported his belief in
young-earth creationism � God created the earth in seven days, and human beings co-existed with
dinosaurs � he quickly became an object of ridicule. One Liberal official showed up on television
with a stuffed dinosaur, calling Day the only Canadian politician "who thinks The Flintstones is
a documentary." He countered the attacks by saying: "I don't think I should have to debate the
interpretation of Genesis any more than I would expect Jean Chr�tien or Joe Clark [both practising
Roman Catholics] to have to debate the Catholic teachings on� immaculate conception."
In 2002, religious groups were outraged by a Royal Canadian Mint ad campaign built around
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" that reworded the Yuletide classic to "The Twelve Days of Giving,"
to make it relevant to coin buyers from more religious groups. Then-leader of the Canadian
Alliance Stephen Harper called the campaign "part of a long list of things the government has
done expunging Christian reference from government activity."
A bill to ban hate propaganda aimed at homosexuals passed in both the House of Commons and
the Senate, to the anger of Christian groups who had attacked it as possibly criminalizing certain
quotes from the Bible. New Democrat MP Svend Robinson had championed the measures contained in his
private member's bill, C-250, for several years. Forty Liberal MPs broke party ranks and voted
with Alliance members against the bill in the House of Commons in late 2003, though it still
managed to pass by a 141-110 vote. Liberal Senator Anne Cools called C-250 an attempt "to cleanse
Canadians of their moral opinions about many homosexual practices," but her colleagues approved it
on April 28, 2004, by a vote of 59-11. Now it merely requires royal assent before becoming
law.
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The religious component of public life. more » |
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History of Canada�s same-sex marriage legislation. more » |
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Some past clashes of church and state. more » |
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The leaders, on the record. more » |
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