OTTAWA - NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair lashed out at evangelical Christian groups Monday, accusing them of going "completely against" Canadian values and law with their beliefs about homosexuality.
Christianity is a religion and the last time I looked freedom of religion is protected in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms under Section 2, Fundamental Freedoms starting with the preamble.
Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:
Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms
Marginal note:Rights and freedoms in Canada
1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.Fundamental Freedoms
Marginal note:Fundamental freedoms
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
Thomas Mulcair is a lawyer and a Catholic. He should know better.
Canada has a rich Judeo-Christian heritage. including our coat of arms. The founders of this country built Canada on the Word of God, as can be seen in many examples. The name “Dominion of Canada”, the motto of Canada, “He shall have dominion from sea to sea” and the phrase on Canada’s coat of arms “A mari usque ad mare” (Latin for: From sea to sea”) are taken from PSALM 72:8.
When, in 1866, the fathers of Confederation were assembled to discuss the terms for uniting the Canadian provinces, Leonard Tilley - premier of New Brunswick - suggested the word “Dominion” from PSALM 72 for the new country. A letter signed by John A. MacDonald - Canada’s first prime minister - explained to Queen Victoria that the name was “a tribute to the principles they earnestly desired to uphold.” The last province to join Canada was Newfoundland whose motto is“Seek ye first the kingdom of God”(MATTHEW 6:33).
From Jacques Cartier to Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, Chritianity played a major role. Even in education system was founded by the Christain faith.
In 1533, Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Montréal. To commemorate the founding of Montréal, Cartier wrote in his diary “…we all kneeled down in the company of the Indians and with our hands raised toward heaven yielded our thanks to God.”The “Father of New France,” Samuel de Champlain, wrote in his diary about the natives, “…(the aborigines are) living without God and without religion…I thereupon concluded in my private judgement that I should be committing a great sin if I did not make it my business to devise some means of bringing them to the knowledge of God.”In 1886, William Howland ran for Mayor of Toronto. During his campaign, Howland would urge voters, “Let us keep the city, a God-fearing city, and I would rather see it thus than the greatest and richest city in the continent”. He won and became Toronto’s 25th Mayor.David Thompson, explorer and statesman, developed maps from his surveys between 1784 and 1812. Many of his maps are still being used today. Thompson’s words give the reason he endured the physical hardship of exploration “so that these physically impenetrable barriers may be traversed and the Gospel be spread.”Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, Premier of New Brunswick and one of the Fathers of Confederation, rose each morning to start his day with prayer and Scripture reading. As the 33 fathers gathered in Charlottetown to discuss and draft the terms of the British North American Act, there are were many suggestions on what to call this new “United Canada.” That morning, as Tilley read from Psalm 72:8, he became so convinced that Canada should be a nation under God, that when he came down to the Conference session, he presented the inspired “Dominion of Canada.” The other Fathers readily agreed and accepted. Today, The following words hang in the corridor near the confederation Chamber in Province House: “In the hearts of the delegates who assembled in this room on September 1, 1864, was born the Dominion of Canada. Providence being their guide they builded better then they knew.”The Education System
Bishop John Strachan, a leader who helped form our public education system, stated that “the church must continue to play a central role in education. You cannot divorce religion from education because schools will inevitably reflect the philosophical and religious or (irreligious) biases of those who direct them.”Egerton Ryerson, father of public education in Canada, wanted a “common patriotic ground of comprehensiveness and avowed (or maintain) Christian principles.” He wrote the textbook First Lessons in Christian Morals which was published in 1871. Ryerson clearly said that the Ontario school system was to be a “Christian public school system.”Many of our greatest Canadian universities were founded as denominational seminaries to educate future church leaders:-King’s College in Nova Scotia, now know as Dalhousie University, was founded by the Anglicans.-The University of Ottawa, founded by the Roman Catholic Church, and one of Canada’s first bilingual Universities. (Corrected as of December 14, 2010)-McMaster University, was founded by the Baptists.The Ontario Public School Act of 1896 stated that “It shall be the duty of every teacher of a public school to teach diligently and faithfully all of the subjects in the public school course of study; to maintain proper order and discipline in his pupils in his school; to encourage his pupils in the pursuit of learning; to include, by precept and example, respect for religion and the principles of Christian morality and the highest regard for truth, justice, love of country, humanity, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, purity, temperance and all other virtues.”
Even the father of medicare,and founder of the NDP party,Tommy Douglas, was a Baptist preacher.
Wonder what Mulcair has to say about Douglas and some of his views?
Could it also be the sadness of knowing that Douglas, during his time as federal leader of the NDP, believed homosexuality, even though decriminalized, should be "recognized for what it is -- a mental illness, a psychiatric condition, which ought to be treated sympathetically by psychiatrists and social workers?"
