OTTAWA — Conservatives are calling for the reversal of a military directive they say inappropriately censors religious speech at public commemorations.
New Brunswick Conservative MP Mike Dawson said it was an affront to the memory of the fallen that the Chaplain General’s 2023
Direction on Chaplain’s Spiritual Reflection in Public Settings
is still in place.
“I am ashamed that our government intends to restrict public expressions of faith in our military, or in plain terms, to ban prayer. It is cowardice to ask our sons and daughters to put themselves in harm’s way but refuse them the right to express their faith in God. To deny those who provide our freedom the right to openly pray is an insult to those who never came home,” Dawson
.
The directive, issued by then chaplain general J.L.G. “Guy” Bélisle in October 2023, compels chaplains to “carefully choose words that are inclusive” to all assembled, including atheists.
The order also restricts chaplains from wearing so-called “Faith Tradition” scarves, bearing religious symbols like crosses and crescent moons, at military ceremonies, mandating that all wear identical scarves adorned with the religiously neutral Royal Canadian Chaplain Service crest.
Bélisle said the changes were necessary following the
Supreme Court of Canada’s Saguenay decision in 2015
, which found that the state has a duty to uphold religious neutrality in public settings.
The then chaplain general tempered his own Remembrance Day address at Ottawa’s National War Memorial last year, prefacing his remarks as a “reflect(ion)” rather than a prayer.
Reverend Doctor Andrew Bennett, head of faith community engagement at faith-based think tank Cardus, says the directive misses the mark of religious neutrality by putting irreligion ahead of religiosity.
“To say that Canadian Armed Forces chaplains cannot speak about God or cannot pray at public ceremonies of remembrance is showing a lack of understanding of who is in the armed forces, men and women who serve this country, many of whom are religious and live out their faith,” said Bennett.
“They don’t put their faith aside when they join the armed forces. And so it is perfectly fitting that it’s ceremonies of remembrance when we remember the dead who are fallen for this country,” he added.
Conservative defence critic James Bezan echoed these sentiments in an email to the National Post.
”We should be encouraging Canadian Armed Forces chaplains of all faiths to offer benedictions and prayers, rather than order them to exclude faith-based prayers from their public remarks,” wrote Bezan.
Bennett said that faith has long been tied to military service, pointing to the old adage “there are no atheists in foxholes.”
“(The directive) dishonours those men and women who fell for this country in combat, when they were in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme or when they were fighting in the Pacific Theatre at the fall of Hong Kong. You don’t think that they were praying that they would survive and see another day?” said Bennett.
Bennett said it’s “entirely in the power” of now Chaplain General Colonel Lisa Pacarynuk to reverse the directive.
Pacarynuk
, becoming Canada’s first female chaplain general.
Retired fifth-generation Canadian Forces veteran Bonnie Critchley, who ran as an independent candidate in the recent Battle River—Crowfoot byelection, said she felt the criticisms of the new directive were overblown, saying that it’s only natural for military protocol to change with the attitudes of those who serve.
“Your spirituality is your own thing. Religion tends to get messy. Yeah. And I am not a religious person person. I am a spiritual person. My own spirituality is my own … I absolutely do appreciate a spiritual tone versus a religious (one),” said Critchley, who retired in 2021 after 22 years of military service.
A spokesperson for Veterans’ Affairs Minister Jill McKnight directed a National Post inquiry to the Chaplain General, who couldn’t be reached for comment.
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