Canadian Officials Ambivalent on Including Atheist Persecution in Foreign Policy
posted on March 07, 2013 05:52AM GMT
The Centre for Inquiry's Think Again! TV released an investigative report that's been posted to YouTube:
Canada's Office of Religious Freedom: Protect Persecuted Atheists
http://youtu.be/D3ieEyO4qg0
The expo includes video remarks by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs explicitly stating that atheists don't require protection from persecution, that "we know freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion" and "we talk of the right to attend places of worship, not the right to stay away from places of worship." The jaw dropping hypocrisy of our Canadian government to respect atheists is something of which people need to be made aware. Please help us circulate this video through email, social media and word of mouth. There will be more videos in the series.
Here is the description that accompanies the video:
On Tuesday, February 19, 2013, the Canadian government officially opened the Office of Religious Freedom.
While we support freedom of a religion as a fundamental freedom, we believe all fundamental freedoms deserve equal protection, including freedom from religion, and freedom to apostasy, to blaspheme, or to engage in speech or expression which may be critical of religious opinion.
Think Again! TV explores some of the problems and limitations of the new initiative, examining the manner in which the Office was created to argue that the government has shown no genuine interest in protecting atheists and agnostics subject to persecution and rights violations around the world.
We document cases of individuals accused of blasphemy or atheism, punished with imprisonment or the death penalty, subject to mob violence, forced to take their own lives, and discriminated against in a wide variety of ways.
We also describe the attempt by the Centre for Inquiry, Canada's leading voice for atheists and agnostics, to bring these cases to the attention of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the complete lack of interest from our elected officials. In video quotes from leading politicians, we demonstrate an inconsistency bordering on deception, which betrays an abandonment of our international obligations to support all forms of freedom of religion.
Thank you
Justin Trottier
Canada's Office of Religious Freedom: Protect Persecuted Atheists
http://youtu.be/D3ieEyO4qg0
The expo includes video remarks by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs explicitly stating that atheists don't require protection from persecution, that "we know freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion" and "we talk of the right to attend places of worship, not the right to stay away from places of worship." The jaw dropping hypocrisy of our Canadian government to respect atheists is something of which people need to be made aware. Please help us circulate this video through email, social media and word of mouth. There will be more videos in the series.
Here is the description that accompanies the video:
On Tuesday, February 19, 2013, the Canadian government officially opened the Office of Religious Freedom.
While we support freedom of a religion as a fundamental freedom, we believe all fundamental freedoms deserve equal protection, including freedom from religion, and freedom to apostasy, to blaspheme, or to engage in speech or expression which may be critical of religious opinion.
Think Again! TV explores some of the problems and limitations of the new initiative, examining the manner in which the Office was created to argue that the government has shown no genuine interest in protecting atheists and agnostics subject to persecution and rights violations around the world.
We document cases of individuals accused of blasphemy or atheism, punished with imprisonment or the death penalty, subject to mob violence, forced to take their own lives, and discriminated against in a wide variety of ways.
We also describe the attempt by the Centre for Inquiry, Canada's leading voice for atheists and agnostics, to bring these cases to the attention of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the complete lack of interest from our elected officials. In video quotes from leading politicians, we demonstrate an inconsistency bordering on deception, which betrays an abandonment of our international obligations to support all forms of freedom of religion.
Thank you
Justin Trottier
National Communications Director, Centre for Inquiry Canada
Host, Think Again! TV
