A Joint Statement Calling for Religious Tolerance and Respect

Thursday, November 23 2000
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.

Every faith tradition has fundamental statements of belief that espouse the truth of its faith. If politicians or media deem such statements about deity and the world to be inappropriate, the result will be to exclude all people of faith from public life.

Therefore, we the undersigned religious representatives call upon politicians and media representatives to be respectful of the faith beliefs of all political candidates and to be committed to treating them with dignity and sensitivity.

Mr. Manual Prutschi
National Director
Community Relations
Canadian Jewish Congress

Msgr. Peter Schonenbach, PH
General Secretary
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

Dr. Muhammad Ashraf
Director General
Islamic Society of North America-Canada

Mr. Gary Walsh
President
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada

All references to specific instances, political parties, leadersor candidates are not included in any statements attributed, approved orlinked in any way to the signed organizations.

For More Information Contact:

Canadian Jewish Congress
Mr. Manual Prutschi
National Director
Community Relations
Tel: (416) 631-5673: Fax: (416) 635-1408
E-mail: mprutschi@ujafed.org

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Mr. Sylvain Salvas salvas@cccb.ca
Tel: (613) 241-9461
Fax: (613) 241-9048

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
Gail Reid
Director of Communications
Tel: (905) 479-5885
Fax: (905) 479-4742
E-mail: reidg@efc-canada.com