Quebec

I recently wrote critically about a Quebec town that granted “rights to trees.” These include the rights “to life, to natural growth, to integrity, and to regeneration.” The new law has gotten a lot of media attention. Now, the New York Times has entered the fray, publishing a relatively objective story about the resolution and the nature rights movement’s history, with only one critic quoted — yours truly, from my NRO article (I was not interviewed). There is more to say about this than I included in my original post. So, let’s dig a little into the Times’ story: The small town of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Quebec, was carved out of the forest about 75 years ago. But until recently, the trees Read More ›

Freedom of religion is an internationally recognized fundamental human right. But in these increasingly secular times, efforts are ongoing to limit believers from living according to their faith outside of church, synagogue, mosque, or temple and home. In other words, religious freedom is being intentionally shriveled into a tepid and essentially toothless freedom of worship.

Canada is leading that charge and, in the process, becoming increasingly authoritarian. For example, even though the Canadian Charter explicitly guarantees “freedom of conscience and religion,” Ontario doctors with a religious objection to committing euthanasia or abortion were denied conscience protections by courts, thereby requiring them to kill or refer to a doctor they know will kill (“effective referral”) or face professional discipline. The judge ruled that if they didn’t like it, they should get out of medicine. (Not coincidentally, some 16,500 people were killed by doctors and nurse practitioners in the country last year.)

In Quebec, public religious practice is in danger of being further suppressed than it already is. The province previously banned the wearing of religious symbols by public sector employees. Now, the ruling government wants to curtail religious practices more broadly and has filed Bill 9, “An Act Respecting the Reinforcement of Laicity in Québec,” toward attaining that end.