OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Leslyn Lewis says that if elected Prime Minster she will reinstate the Office of Religious Freedom to ensure Canada would once again be a “defender” of religious liberty.
“I said it in 2020 and I’ll say it again, we must stand up for religious freedom in Canada and around the world,” wrote Lewis in a Tweet yesterday.
“As I stated in the previous leadership race, as Prime Minister I would reinstate the Office of Religious Freedom, and under my leadership, Canada would once again be a defender of religious freedom across the country and around the world.”
I said it in 2020 and I’ll say it again, we must stand up for religious freedom in Canada and around the world. pic.twitter.com/u1WSnw3dLS
— Dr. Leslyn Lewis (@LeslynLewis) March 14, 2022
ewis’ tweet mentioned Quebec Bill 21, which the government of Québec passed in June 2019 with the full support of the Québec Premier François Legault. It bans public sector employees such as schoolteachers, police officers, government lawyers, and other workers from wearing religious symbols, which include crosses and crucifixes, the kippah (Jewish skullcaps) and hijab (Muslim headscarves).
An amendment to the bill allows those who currently wear religious symbols to continue to do so until they take a new position in the public sector.
Those opposed to the secularism law say it unfairly targets Muslims and Sikhs.
The Catholic bishops of Québec in 2019 condemned the ban on wearing religious symbols, saying it could “fuel fear and intolerance.”
Wrote Lewis of Bill 21, “Our Party needs to make decisions based on principle. Making a decision based on how it will be received by any demographic is the wrong reason. Even making the right decision for purely political purposes is wrong.”
“While I respect provincial jurisdiction, Bill 21 is explicit religious discrimination and as leader of our party, I will always defend religious freedom. Religious discrimination should always be condemned, no matter who it is against, or where it is happening.”
Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom was established by former Prime Minister Stephan Harper in 2013 to “promote religious diversity and religious tolerance around the world.”
In 2016, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the help of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois party, voted to shut down the Office of Religious Freedom.
CPC MP Leslyn Lewis, who is running for party leadership, recently criticized Trudeau’s “undemocratic” mandate barring those who reject COVID vaccines from traveling, saying it’s time for it to end.
The CPC will hold its leadership vote on September 10.