OTTAWA, November 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Canadian Defence Department announced plans Monday to remove the Christian symbol—a Maltese cross—from the caps of its army chaplains. The move is claimed to be because the military’s first Moslem chaplain was hired last year. “We are looking at seeing what developments there could be in that field because, to have a Muslim or to have someone of another faith under that same cap badge—I think it wouldn’t be of service to them,” military Chaplain Jean Bourgeois told the Toronto Sun.
Both Conservative MP Jason Kenney and chairman of the Commons defence committee, Liberal MP Pat O’Brien were critical of the move.
“I think that’s ridiculous. It’s typical political correctness,” Kenney said, referring to one suggestion to replace the cross with the branch insignia. “Pluralism doesn’t mean you eliminate symbols for every different community. It means you respect all the different symbols, whether it’s the Star of David for a Jewish chaplain or a (crescent) for a Muslim chaplain.” O’Brien doesn’t believe the legitimacy of the “multi-faith nature of society” reason for the proposed change either. “I think we can carry that a little bit too far. Why shouldn’t you be able to embrace your own religious symbols?” he said.
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