Mr. Speaker, on June 6, Bishop Henry, in a pastoral letter, stated:
In much of the secular media [the] Prime Minister... is frequently described as a 'devout Catholic'. However, his recently clarified position regarding... same sex [marriage] is a source of scandal in the Catholic community and reflects a fundamental moral incoherence.
Bishop Henry states that in response to that letter he received a call from a federal tax collector in Ottawa and was advised that the Catholic church could lose its charitable status if he continued to challenge the Prime Minister on such issues.
In August, representatives of the Catholic church and the evangelical movement met with officials of the Canadian Revenue Agency to discuss their charitable status. To some representatives the message was very clear: shut up during elections or lose their charitable status. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press are the most essential elements of a free and democratic society. These are freedoms that are so important that the designers of the charter itself, Pierre Trudeau and 10 premiers, called them fundamental freedoms. Those are the most important points of the charter.
There will always be individuals who disagree with other people's points of view. Unless these people are advocating criminal actions by somebody else or encouraging people to commit criminal actions, my view is that they have a perfect right to express their views in a free and democratic society.
It is however very disturbing when government uses the machinery of government, the powers of the state, to muzzle and shut down our most fundamental freedoms.
In recent times the Liberals shut down a radio station in Quebec because I think they thought it was too right of centre. The Liberal government has decided in its wisdom that the Fox news network cannot be in Canada because it is too conservative. We have even heard members on the opposite side say that Don Cherry should be fired from CBC, or at least censored, because they do not like his points of view. If freedom of speech and freedom of religion mean anything we have to accept other points of view even if we disagree with them.
We will be talking a lot about this on privilege. As members of Parliament, we like to say that we have the widest latitude of freedom of speech that anyone can have. When the issue comes up with Mr. Guité and other people, we will all slap ourselves on the back and say that freedom of speech is really an important issue and something we all have to stand in the House and defend. However the Liberal government, through its agencies, goes around intimidating and harassing Canadian citizens for doing something that they have a right to do, which is to express their religious beliefs and their beliefs on issues of the day.
I take this issue very seriously. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are very fragile concepts. If members do not believe me they should start reading some history books or start looking around at some of the other countries in the world. When the state gets directly involved in intimidating, threatening and challenging people's right to express their points of view, that is dangerous.