Peter Menzies: Canada Must Not Become a Country Without a Soul

People walk near the Lac-aux-Castors at Mont-Royal in Montreal in a file photo. Andrej Ivanov/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

Given the uncertainty that hangs over its leadership, it’s not hard for Canadians to imagine a country without a fully functioning government.

Opposition parties are clamouring for an election, and no one knows if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will stay on or resign or if Parliament, assuming it resumes, will be dissolved following a vote of non-confidence. Public support for Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals is at an all-time low—16 percent according to the latest Angus Reid poll—while the wounds inflicted by Chrystia Freeland’s resignation from cabinet still fester.

The functions of government are in no immediate risk of failing, of course. Rebellious MPs aren’t going to bring it down and the prime minister has the option to prorogue for a few months to reorganize in time for an election, which has to be held this year anyway. The machinery of government is not at risk. Planes will not fall from the sky.

The government’s problem isn’t technical, in other words. But it nevertheless struggles to meet the definition of “fully functioning” because it has lost something that is both ethereal and essential: faith—the public’s faith in it and its faith in itself.

It is perhaps not as obvious to some as it is to others, but it appears obvious that even a government’s life depends on more than belts and roads.

In a post-Christian society such as ours, we don’t talk about the necessity of unseen powers and beliefs much anymore, and yet one doesn’t have to be religious to realize their value. Love, for instance, is unseen but deeply felt and motivates much, both good and bad. The same goes for belief or faith, whether it’s in each other, ourselves, or a higher power.

When I was a boy, the churches in this country were well-populated. Given that a lot of those buildings have now been turned into restaurants, or in some cases, mosques, it’s obvious that a lot of those in my generation chose not to make that weekly ritual a part of their lives. As a result, many of our children and grandchildren have never darkened the door of a house of worship where issues dealing with the big questions of life get discussed. They have no idea what goes on in there and what moral instruction they receive beyond the home comes only from the education system.

Now, if this troubled government follows the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance in its pre-budget consultations, the state is poised to deliver the coup de grâce to institutions of faith currently recognized as charities. Here are the recommendations of note:

“Recommendation 429: No longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.

“Recommendation 430: Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose.”

While the first of these would effectively eliminate any discussion of the matter at hand, it’s the second that really catches the eye as it would decimate 40 percent of the nation’s charitable sector.

The motivation for this is unclear, but I suspect it may be connected to the lack of knowledge many people have these days about what actually goes on inside churches. I can only speak for the one I attend, but contentious social issues have not been mentioned from the pulpit in at least 20 years. What is spoken of is projects to help the poor and broken within our community, along with the funding of missions to Africa and Central America to build and staff schools and health-care facilities.

But if the majority of members of the standing committee have their way, not only would that work be wiped out, institutions that perform those sorts of duties—the Salvation Army is a good example—would be obliterated. Canada would become, officially, a country without a soul.

The think tank Cardus keeps its ears pretty close to the ground in Ottawa. Perhaps in anticipation of this move, it published a report in November that estimated the value to Canadian society of work done by the institutions that the government recommends “delisting.”

Among its key points are these:

• A religious congregation’s “Halo Effect” is the dollar value of its socio-economic contribution to society.
• The Halo Effect, and the value of tax exemptions and credits, were calculated for sixty-four Christian congregations in Canada.
• The congregations’ Halo Effect is 10.47 times the value of the tax exemptions and credits, on average. Put differently, the value of the tax exemptions and credits is less than one-tenth the value of what these congregations contribute socio-economically.
• The net-positive socio-economic contribution (Halo Effect, minus the value of tax exemptions and credits) of all religious congregations in Canada is an estimated $16.5 billion.

That, for Canada, is the physical manifestation of belief that would, if Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc takes the committee up on its recommendations, disappear in this spring’s budget.

Little wonder this government is struggling to keep the public’s faith in it alive.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.