We live in interesting times.
We have a church that promised $20 million dollars to ‘repay’ the attrocities they committed in residential schools, then reneged on the deal pleading poverty – only to spend $300 million on a new cathedral! We have fundamentalist preachers bleating from the pulpit about how masks are the devil’s work, then seeing provincial premiers trying to intercede on their behalf when called before a judge. Then a couple days ago on social media I saw a shared meme from the above poverty stricken church about how the enemy was Satan not The Virgin Mary; while proclaiming their proud history WITHOUT mentioning residential schools, the Sixties Scoop or Mt. Cashell.
Do you see the connection?
In Canada we have a growing movement to ‘repeal’ the separation of church and state in favour of ‘laws’ according to one religion – Christianity (in name only!). While progessives sit smugly thinking all is well in the True North, the movement towards white supremacy – nationalist theocracy grows by the day, aided and abetted by political parties afraid to lose those valuable votes on election day.
Is there a solution? Certainly there is, a very simple solution (the best ones usually are)!
What connects the mainstream churches, fundamentalists, anti-vax wackos and white supremacists is money – lots of money! We saw that in spades during the Ottawa Occupation of 2022, when more than $10 million was collected in a matter of days to fund a movement that was seditious at the very least!
And while the Liberals let the situation fester (for their political gain!), the Conservatives took selfies with the ‘truckers’ and the provincial government turned the other cheek (it ‘helped’ that the Premier’s daughter is one of the movers and shakers of the anti-vax movement!), BIPOC citizens of Ottawa were assaulted on the streets, stores were looted and businesses closed in droves when it was unsafe for their employees to even do their job! Remember Billings Bridge!
But I digress.
If our government, federal this time, is serious about building a diverse culture where it is safe to walk the streets regardless of race, colour, creed, orientation, gender identity or whatever, it is critical that the seperation between church and state needs to be widened, NOT narrowed! And our government has the tools to do this.
Churches in this country are registered charities. From my years sitting on church boards I can tell you that churches pay very little or NO taxes on their buildings and services – the collection plate going direct to the bank! Since there is no real appetite in this country to charge preachers with sedition, why not remove churches from registered charity status? Forcing them to pay the going rate, like any other business, would certainly lower the amount of money they are shovelling into the white supremacist movement. And there would be no poor charity to hide behind when it comes to being accountable for their historical actions!
Can this be done? Definitely! Will it be done? Nope. There is zilch chance that any sitting government would have the stones to go up against the church. Their marketing tells them that that would be political suicide.
Too bad they won’t even put it to a national referendum. I think the results would surprise them, and would definitely start Canada on the road to creating a better country for all of us…
[more to come]