Critical and ridiculing statements made by public officials and the media promote intolerance and call into question the competence of persons of faith to hold public office. While it is legitimate to inquire about how a candidate's religious beliefs or philosophy of life influence his or her approach to public policy, the attacks on Day go far beyond this and ridicule specific religious beliefs. Mocking the beliefs of a candidate of any faith does not aid the decision-making process. In our pluralistic Canadian society there should be room for faith diversity. There are people of deep faith in all political parties and at all levels of government.
Individuals ought to be able to come to public life with their faith and their beliefs intact.
They should not have their integrity and ability questioned on the basis of their fundamental beliefs. All individuals of any faith are threatened when one faith is mocked. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada takes no partisan position. However, EFC cannot ignore the blatant bias of some journalists and even some politicians in denigrating the leader of the Canadian Alliance because of his faith commitments. To restrict it from the public square flies in the face of all our guarantees of freedom of religion and expression found in the Charter and human rights legislation.