flintknapper

Regulate religion.

OTTAWA, July 19, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Just as Senate approaches the final vote on the gay 'marriage' bill, C-38, Canada's national public radio CBC Radio has aired a commentary by a retired professor from the Royal Military College calling for state control over religion, specifically Catholicism. While parliamentarians dismissed warnings by numerous religious leaders and experts that such laws would lead to religious persecution, former professor Bob Ferguson has called for "legislation to regulate the practice of religion."

IamMoose

Well how precisely are they wanting to control Catholicism? How CAN you control it, without taking away people's personal liberties?

vsop44

I am a CBC listener and this is news to me .
but do not hold your breath for a bill like that to make its way to the house of commons .
Canadian politics are in shamble these days . We have a minority government in the house and what with the report from a fiscal scandal expected later this fall ,that will likely bring the government down if they do not call an election when the report is presented as promised . I doubt that any elected official would dream of voting for that kind of law , which would certainly be found anticonstitutional by the supreme court .

sodium

Maybe there are a few things that should be pointed out. One is that the CBC is Canada's national / government owned broadcaster. But it isn't like the old Soviet Union's Pravda, where you could go for the current governing party line. The CBC isn't supposed to represent the government. Nor does Ferguson particularly represent the CBC. Presumably, the CBC thought people might find Ferguson's views interesting, so they broadcasted them.

A quick search on Google suggests that a lot of people are using this story for scare-mongering, but Ferguson backers seem harder to find, except for the OP.

My own opinion is that Ferguson is suggesting an absurd level of restriction on freedom of speech and association. More generally, I do think that there are some questions in this direction as the principle that government should be neutral with respect to religion conflicts with the principle that people should have free exercise of religion. I tend to favour neutrality, but I tend to feel compromise may be necessary.

Biff the unclean

Isn't it the "French" Canadians who make up most of the RC population?

vsop44

Yes Biff , the french Canadians made up most of the RC population in Canada in the past. But that was before the quiet revolution of the 60's where the RC church controlled most institutions in the province ; Now Quebec is a secular society and people have abandoned the church in droves .

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo30b.htm

Astreja

I think this is leftover F.U.D. from the same-sex marriage debate. I follow the CBC News website every day, and this is news to me.

Canada, especially the urban centres, is essentially secular already. The only time I see churchgoers is at Sunday brunch at my neighbourhood Salisbury House. And no one is pounding on my front door trying to sell me a new set of beliefs, either. (Then again, the dragon on the lawn might be scaring them away... Or eating them.)

We don't need to control the Catholic Church or any other belief system. But if we ever manage to pull it off, let's take all their loot and spend it on things like health care, new roads and other essential services.