Conscience rights: Canada's (mostly) silent, oppressed minority

About one third of Canadians attend religious services on a weekly basis. That's about 12 million Canadians.

Canadians of faith have built and run hospitals, seniors' residences and extended care homes, alcohol and drug rehabilitation centres, food banks, pregnancy care homes, homeless shelters including "Inn from the Cold" housing for the homeless, half-way houses, shelters for women and their children. They have established and manage independent and parish schools, youth outreach centres, summer youth camps, gyms, post-secondary institutions of higher learning, radio stations and television and recording studios. Canadians of faith organize and host seniors' lunches and dinners, after-school programs for "latch-key" children, financial and debt management seminars, English as a second language courses, high school and degree completion programs, and many, many more.

This doesn't include the thousands of chapels, churches, meeting houses and cathedrals as well as synagogues, mosques and temples where Canadians come together. Week in, week out, Canadians of faith assemble to worship their God, solemnize weddings, conduct funerals, and welcome newborns into their faith communities.

But now, places of worship and faith-based facilities can no longer advertise nor make their facilities available to the general public unless they are prepared to make these facilities available to groups whose objectives or practices are in opposition to their own. For example, a church cannot make its chapel or hall available to the general public unless it is prepared to make it available for a same-sex "wedding" or reception.

It doesn't stop there.

Marriage commissioners of faith are compelled to solemnize same-sex marriages. Faith-based schools in Alberta are required to "facilitate" so-called "gay-straight alliance" clubs. In Ontario, Bill 89 will make it easier to remove children from the homes of religious parents who teach their children that marriage is only for one man and one woman, excluding all others.

Medical doctors of faith are being pressured, if not required as in Quebec and Ontario, to perform or give referrals for abortions and assisted suicide death. If they refuse, they risk sanction, discipline and loss of licence to practice by their province's governing college of physicians and surgeons. Similar coercion can extend to nurses, pharmacists and other medical professionals.

Well-financed attempts in the courts to block faith-based teacher training programs or a faith-based law school are well known. People of faith are blocked or excluded from the teaching, legal and medical professions.

People of faith and conscience are now Canada's most numerous oppressed minority.

As Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, I will push for recognition of conscience rights and protections in Canadian law for people of faith, including professionals, and for faith-based organizations and institutions.

As Prime Minister, I will introduce a Conscience Bill of Rights to entrench these rights and protections in Canadian law.

Help me end the oppression. Take action now by making a tax-deductible contribution to my campaign. To donate online now or by mail click on the button to the right.

You can also help by voting for me in the upcoming Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Election. To be eligible to vote, please register (or extend your existing registration) using the button on the right. Other members of your family 14 years of age or older who live with you can also vote for me, so don't forget to register them too!