Discrimination v. Atheists – SCS Nexus ∞ La connexion SCS

Systemic and Social Discrimination Against non-believers in Canada
By: Doug Thomas, B.A. B.Ed., President, Secular Connexion Séculière

Executive Summary

The Supreme Court of Canada declared in 1984 that section 2 (a) of The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right to freedom from religion as much as it protects the right to freedom of religion
Systemic discrimination is embedded in the law or institutions
Social discrimination is embedded in our society by individuals
The Freedom of Thought Report – Humanists International lists Canada as a country that systemically discriminates against non-believers.((2020 Freedom of Thought Report).
Secular Humanism is a positive life stance adopted by many non-believers
The Criminal Code of Canada, Section 319 (3b) which allows religious people to utter hate speech and publish hate literature opens the door for discrimination against non-believers and others
Canada’s refugee policy, Less Complex Claims category excludes non-believing refugees subjecting them to lengthy hearings while members of several religions from several countries are given the status and do not require hearings
The CRA Charitable status regulations discriminate against non-believers
Heritage practices discriminate against non-believers; e.g. O Canada The official lyrics of O Canada promote theism and force religion on students when they are played during daily opening ceremonies in schools. They also present Canada as a theistic country rather than one that separates church and state,
Remedies require changes in legislation to give non-believers equal rights with theists, but do not require removal of theist rights

Non-believers’ Rights

Recently, many legitimate claims of systemic discrimination have been made. The Black Lives Matter Movement, Aboriginal leaders, and the LGBTQ communities have all drawn public and political attention the discrimination that fits the two definitions of systemic discrimination.

Laws that discriminate against any identifiable group in society are examples of systemic discrimination – discrimination embedded in the system.

Tolerance of discrimination by leaders and decision makers is also systemic discrimination.

Both kinds of systemic discrimination are practised against non-believers. Laws and political practices commonly dismiss or ignore the right to freedom from religion established by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1984 and reinforced by subsequent decisions of that same court (Big M Drugs v. The Crown, 1984 and Simoneau v. City of Saguenay, 2015)

This paper focuses on these kinds of systemic discrimination rather than discussing social discrimination against non-believers which must be remedied elsewhere.

While systemic discrimination in legislation and in political practice effects all non-believers, this paper is written from the perspective of the Secular Humanist community. Briefly described, Secular Humanism is a philosophy of life practised by many non-believers who feel, that in the absence of any supreme being or supernatural governing force in the universe, their actions and the consequences of their actions rest with them alone. They use the writings of many philosophers as touchstones to determine ethical action through reason and regard living life for the benefit of all and leaving a positive legacy to be the real purpose of life (See appendix II for the 12 principles of Secular Humanism laid down by Humanists International – formerly International Humanist and Ethical Union – in 1952 and refreshed in 2002.)

The Secular Humanist community exists as many groups across Canada, each acting as a fellowship for Secular Humanists and working to support their members in the face of systemic and social discrimination, not the least of which is bad treatment by their former friends and family who remain part of theist communities.

There are three national organizations, each of which focuses on different goals to protect and enhance the Secular Humanist experience and co-operate to assist local organizations. They are not a part of a hierarchical governing system.

Humanist Canada, the oldest organization, focuses on educating the public about Secular Humanism and on training Secular Humanist Officiants who are licensed to perform wedding ceremonies and also conduct celebrations of life and other passages.

Secular Connexion Séculière, to which this author belongs as a registered lobbyist, focuses on removing systemic discrimination against non-believers at all levels of government in Canada.

The Centre for Inquiry Canada focuses on skeptical analysis of theist statements and claims and works to help refugees from theist governed countries that actively persecute and even execute non-believers.

Specific Systemic Discrimination Against Non-believers in Canada

The Criminal Code of Canada – Section 319-3b

This section clearly discriminates against non-believers among others by allowing religious people to utter hate speech in public and publish hate literature as long as they support their comments from their religious texts.

Section 319 (3)(b) states:

(3) No person shall be convicted of an offense under 319 (2) [Willful promotion of hatred]

(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text (See Appendix III for the complete section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada).

This clause exempts religious writers from prosecution of wilful promotion of hatred when they are able to cite their religious texts as justification either as direct support:

“The atheists, as in who deny the creation, as Arama; the wicked, as after explained, as all wicked men are, how wise soever they may be in things natural and civil, yet in religious things, … were envied by the psalmist;” (Psalms 73.3, The Bible)

or implied support:

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice [sic]magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.” (Revelation 21.8, The Bible)

Religious people regularly attack non-believers in public speeches and in writing with accusations based on these and other passages in The Bible and the Qur’an. They do so with impunity because 319 3b allows them to do so.

Indeed, fundamentalist Christians sometimes accuse Jews of being evil because The Gospels blame Jews for the conviction of Jesus in Pilate’s court and for the insistence that Jesus be executed.

The remedy for this systemic discrimination is to remove Section 319 3b from the Criminal Code of Canada.

Canada’s Refugee Policies Discriminate Against Non-believer Refugee Claimants

Canada’s refugee policies include a “Less Complex Claims” policy that allows people of certain religions applying for refugee status from certain countries to gain refugee status without a hearing or with a shortened hearing (https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/procedures/Pages/countries-claim-types-criteria.aspx).

The Less Complex Claims policy:

In September of 2020 one of our Advocates drew our attention to the less complex claims policy noted above. On September 16, 2020 SCS sent and email to the Hon. Marco Mendicino regarding the systemic discrimination against non-believers as noted above. Specifically SCS drew his attention to the listing of Ahmadi, Shia, and Christian refugee claimants from Pakistan, noting that non-believers (atheists) were not included in the list of claimants eligible for the Less Complex Claims status on the pages referenced above.

In addition, SCS started a campaign encouraging Secular Humanists to go to SCS’ website to send an email to Minister Mendicino and to the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship. SCS and its fellow Secular Humanists have received nothing but automated responses to these emails.

However, in reviewing the page referenced above, we noticed that the page was modified on November 3, 2020 and the list of religions and countries designated for Less Complex Claims status has been removed. SCS is now seeking assurances from Minister Mendicino that non-believers will receive the same treatment as Ahmadis, Shias, Christians, Coptic Christians, from countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Specifically, in a document listing “Less Complex [Refugee] Claims, atheists are excluded from the list of refugee claimants who can by-pass hearings to attain refugee status (https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/information-sheets/Pages/less-complex-claims.aspx), but several religious groups are included.

(NOTE: On September 17, 2020, SCS emailed the Hon. Marco E.L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship to draw his attention to this problem and ask that atheists be included. To this date, we have received nothing but automated responses from the Minister of Immigration. On November 3, 2020, someone modified the page cited to remove any reference to the list.)

Significantly the document referenced above lists the same countries as the Freedom of Thought Report lists as countries that persecute and even execute atheists.

SCS has begun a campaign to eliminate this discrimination by writing directly to the Hon. Marco E.L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Canadian Citizenship pointing out the following:

atheists are persecuted just as much and sometimes more in these countries as people belonging to the religions listed,
the standard in Canada for human rights is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Supreme Court of Canada has declared several times that the charter guarantees the right to freedom from religion as much as the right to freedom of religion,
several atheists are currently in danger while awaiting the refugee hearings that could be avoided if they were not excluded from less complex claim status.

The Canada Revenue Agency Charities Directorate Charitable Status Regulations

The CRA – CD regulations governing the granting of charitable status discriminate against Secular Humanist organizations by favouring religious organizations:

Secular Humanist organizations are required to develop and justify charitable purposes that are acceptable to the Charities Directorate based on court decisions based on the CRA regulations while only requirement for attaining charitable status for a church is that it promote its theist views. For example, providing the same fellowship support for non-believers, many of whom suffer from abusive treatment from their former religious friends and family, as churches provide within the context of their congregations does not directly qualify as a charitable purpose for Secular Humanist Groups.

This is a confusing process since there Secular Humanist organizations must select from court approved sub-categories that may or may not reflect the real charitable purposes of the organization. Then, unlike churches, the Secular Humanist organizations are required to submit detailed annual reports on how they have carried out these activities. This is a case of double systemic discrimination since the courts continue to reject appeals to them based on the the regulations that are discriminatory in the first place,
Religious organizations are automatically granted the right to raise building funds, a right granted to Secular Humanist organizations only on a case by case basis. To our knowledge, no Secular Humanist organization has been granted this right under the aegis of the Charities Directorate.

In our opinion, the remedy for this systemic discrimination is to develop a separate category for Secular Humanist organizations recognizing that the fellowship support offered by these organizations, the promotion of Secular Humanist principles as described in Appendix II, and the positive contributions to the general community already offered by Secular Humanist organizations are sufficient qualifications for charitable status.

O Canada

The official lyrics to O Canada in both languages contain theistic references and passages. They also exclude immigrants. Neither non-believers nor immigrants can sing O Canada without being hypocrites. Secular Humanists feel that our national anthem should represent and include everyone.

More importantly, when the official words are played over PA systems in public places, the right to freedom from religion established as noted above is denied to non-believers in that public place. Every morning students in public (secular) school stems have religion forced upon them in this way. In those circumstances, O Canada becomes a promotional tool for religions.

Canadian Secular Humanists also object the representation of their home and cherished land as theist when O Canada is played at international events when it is intended to be a secular country with due separation of church and state.

In English, O Canada speaks of “our home and native land.” This excludes recent immigrants for whom Canada is not their native land. We suggest changing the words to, “our home and cherished land.”

Since the National Anthems Act of1980, the English words also contain the theistic sentiment, “God keep our land, glorious and free.” Secular Humanists find this offensive since they accept full responsibility for keeping Canada glorious and free propose the words “We’ll keep our land, glorious and free.”

In French, the theism is even more pervasive.

The first line, which contains “terre de nos aieux” (land of our ancestors) excludes recent immigrants and should be changed to “terre pour enfants” (land for our children). The second line should then be “Ton front est ceint des bijou élégants” (your brow is encircled with elegant jewels) to maintain poetic integrity.⁵

Further necessary changes include, “Tu supports nos choix” (You support our choices; i.e. democracy), and “Et ta valeur d’espoire trempé.” (Your values are imbued with hope.)

Secular Connexion Séculière is already working with some Ontario school boards to request accommodations be made for non-believing students to have instrumental versions only played at school ceremonies and to allow non-believing students to memorize the SCS secular lyrics for class memory assignments.

English (anglais)

O Canada, our home and cherished land,
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts, we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free.
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.

We’ll keep our land, glorious and free.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

français (French)

O Canada terre pour nos enfants
Ton front est ceint des bijoux élégants
Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
Et tu supportes nos choix.
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillant exploits.

Et ta valeur, d’espoir trempé

Protégéra nos foyers et nos droits.
Protégéra nos foyers et nos droits.

Appendix I – Clarification of Terms

Atheist: Derived from the Greek atheos meaning “without gods.” The term simply means one who does not believe in god(s). It does not mean anti-theist although some people who self-identify with the term are active in criticizing and opposing religions and faith.

Theist: Derived from the Greek theos meaning “with gods” is a general term for those who believe in some kind of supreme being or beings. A theist may be religious or not, depending on whether they adhere to a formal religion or not.

Agnostics: are properly considered to follow the philosophy of knowledge set out by Thomas Huxley in 1869. That philosophy sees evidence and logical analysis of evidence as the only path to truth. Strict followers of this philosophy self-identify as Huxleyan agnostics and consider themselves as absolute non-believers since they do not accept belief as a path to truth. However, since the question, “Is there a god?” is unanswerable because there is no evidence and no empirical test for the question, Huxleyan agnostics generally ignore the question. The agnostic philosophy has nothing to do with belief and everything to do with the pursuit of knowledge.

Note: Some people misuse the term agnostic to mean someone who is somewhere between a theist and an atheist, but this is not possible since the philosophy has to do with knowledge, not belief, and so can not be considered as a position between a belief that something is true and a belief that something is not true.

Secular Humanism: a commitment on the part of non-believers to a positive philosophy that puts responsibility for actions and the consequences of those actions squarely on the shoulders of the Secular Humanist. They do not accept dogma as a way to ethics, but consider each ethical situation in the light of ideas from such philosophers as Thales, Epicurus and many others. The International Humanist and Ethical Union, now known as Humanists International, set down twelve principles of Secular Humanism in 1952. Those principles were reviewed and updated in 2002 (see appendix 2, following). While the principles form touchstones for ethical decisions, Secular Humanists make ethical decisions based on evidence and reason.

Appendix II Amsterdam Declaration 2002
(https://humanists.international/what-is-humanism/the-amsterdam-declaration/)

Humanism is the outcome of a long tradition of free thought that has inspired many of the world’s great thinkers and creative artists and gave rise to science itself.

The fundamentals of modern Humanism are as follows:

Humanism is ethical. It affirms the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual and the right of every human being to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others. Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity including future generations. Humanists believe that morality is an intrinsic part of human nature based on understanding and a concern for others, needing no external sanction.
Humanism is rational. It seeks to use science creatively, not destructively. Humanists believe that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine intervention. Humanism advocates the application of the methods of science and free inquiry to the problems of human welfare. But Humanists also believe that the application of science and technology must be tempered by human values. Science gives us the means but human values must propose the ends.
Humanism supports democracy and human rights. Humanism aims at the fullest possible development of every human being. It holds that democracy and human development are matters of right. The principles of democracy and human rights can be applied to many human relationships and are not restricted to methods of government.
Humanism insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility. Humanism ventures to build a world on the idea of the free person responsible to society, and recognizes our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world. Humanism is undogmatic, imposing no creed upon its adherents. It is thus committed to education free from indoctrination.
Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion. The world’s major religions claim to be based on revelations fixed for all time, and many seek to impose their world-views on all of humanity. Humanism recognizes that reliable knowledge of the world and ourselves arises through a continuing process of observation, evaluation and revision.
Humanism values artistic creativity and imagination and recognizes the transforming power of art. Humanism affirms the importance of literature, music, and the visual and performing arts for personal development and fulfillment.
Humanism is a life stance aiming at the maximum possible fulfillment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times. Humanism can be a way of life for everyone everywhere.

Appendix III Criminal Code of Canada Section 319
(https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/)

319 (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Wilful promotion of hatred

(2) Every on who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Defences

(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (2)

(a) if he establishes that the statements communicated were true;

(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument based on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text;

(c) if the statements were relevant to any subject of public interest, the discussion of which was for the public benefit, and if on reasonable grounds he believed them to be true; or

(d) if, in good faith, he intended to point out, for the purpose of removal, matters producing or tending to produce feelings of hatred toward an identifiable group in Canada.

Appendix I – Clarification of Terms

Appendix II Amsterdam Declaration 2002
(https://humanists.international/what-is-humanism/the-amsterdam-declaration/)

Humanism is the outcome of a long tradition of free thought that has inspired many of the world’s great thinkers and creative artists and gave rise to science itself.

The fundamentals of modern Humanism are as follows:

Humanism is ethical. It affirms the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual and the right of every human being to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others. Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity including future generations. Humanists believe that morality is an intrinsic part of human nature based on understanding and a concern for others, needing no external sanction.
Humanism is rational. It seeks to use science creatively, not destructively. Humanists believe that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine intervention. Humanism advocates the application of the methods of science and free inquiry to the problems of human welfare. But Humanists also believe that the application of science and technology must be tempered by human values. Science gives us the means but human values must propose the ends.
Humanism supports democracy and human rights. Humanism aims at the fullest possible development of every human being. It holds that democracy and human development are matters of right. The principles of democracy and human rights can be applied to many human relationships and are not restricted to methods of government.
Humanism insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility. Humanism ventures to build a world on the idea of the free person responsible to society, and recognizes our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world. Humanism is undogmatic, imposing no creed upon its adherents. It is thus committed to education free from indoctrination.
Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion. The world’s major religions claim to be based on revelations fixed for all time, and many seek to impose their world-views on all of humanity. Humanism recognizes that reliable knowledge of the world and ourselves arises through a continuing process of observation, evaluation and revision.
Humanism values artistic creativity and imagination and recognizes the transforming power of art. Humanism affirms the importance of literature, music, and the visual and performing arts for personal development and fulfillment.
Humanism is a life stance aiming at the maximum possible fulfillment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times. Humanism can be a way of life for everyone everywhere.

Appendix III Criminal Code of Canada Section 319
(https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/)

319 (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Wilful promotion of hatred

(2) Every on who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Defences

(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (2)

(a) if he establishes that the statements communicated were true;

(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument based on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text;

(c) if the statements were relevant to any subject of public interest, the discussion of which was for the public benefit, and if on reasonable grounds he believed them to be true; or

(d) if, in good faith, he intended to point out, for the purpose of removal, matters producing or tending to produce feelings of hatred toward an identifiable group in Canada.