The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) published a paper suggesting that predominately Christian holidays are linked to “religious intolerance.”
The CHRC, Canada’s “human rights watchdog,” aims to work toward the “eradication” of religious intolerance.
“Discrimination against religious minorities in Canada is grounded in Canada’s history of colonialism. This history manifests itself in present-day systemic religious discrimination. An obvious example is statutory holidays in Canada,” the paper says.
The paper explains that holidays “related to Christianity,” such as Christmas and Easter, are linked to intolerance.
Non-Christians “may need to request special accommodations to observe their holy days and other times of the year where their religion requires them to abstain from work,” the CHRC wrote.
“Canada’s history with religious intolerance is deeply rooted in our identity as a settler colonial state. A key example, of which we still see the effects today, was the systematic effort to delegitimize and eradicate Indigenous spirituality and ways of life through the use of residential schools,” the paper continued, noting that Christian churches were behind the schools.
“At these schools, Indigenous children were subjected to forceful conversion to Christianity as their spirituality was framed as being superstitious or a form of witchcraft,” the CHRC asserted. “They were depicted as inferior beings to justify the violence and discrimination brought against them by colonizers.”
Leader of Canada’s Conservative Party John Rustad responded to the paper on X, writing, “The Trudeau Liberals have lost their minds to woke culture. There is nothing discriminatory about Christmas.”
