Having a day off work for Christmas and Easter is evidence of Canada’s ‘colonialist’ history, a publicly funded human rights body has claimed.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission, which is funded by the federal government, said that the public celebration of major Christian festivals is rooted in religious intolerance.
“Discrimination against religious minorities in Canada is grounded in Canada’s history of colonialism,” the group said. “An obvious example is statutory holidays in Canada.”
In a report entitled “Discussion Paper on Religious Intolerance,” the group said that Christmas and Easter are the only statutory holidays linked to religion. “As a result, 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.”
“Canada’s history with religious intolerance is deeply rooted in our identity as a settler colonial state,” the report adds.
Canada remains a predominantly Christian country according to the 2021 national census, which states that Christians make up over 50% of the country’s population. This may be down from 77% in 2001, but the second largest religion, Islam, still accounts for less than 5%.
According to the National Post newspaper, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which was formed to enforce the Human Rights Act in 1977, receives $32 million a year in government funding from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Despite the apparent animosity toward Christmas by the Human Rights Commission, polling has shown that Canadians of all religions have no problem with Christmas being a statutory holiday, with a poll released last year showing just 6% wanted to scrap religious-based holidays.
Controversies surrounding Christmas are heavily linked to Canada’s programme of mass immigration. In 2011, a principal of a school in Embrun, Ontario, cancelled the school’s Christmas concert because there were nine students not participating.
The principal thought at the time a Christmas concert might anger some families but was met with an enormous backlash from the public at large.
The trend of taking Jesus Christ out of the Christmas holidays has continued across Canada, however. In Canada’s largest city, Toronto, the annual Christmas Market at the famed Distillery District was rebranded in 2021 as the ‘Distillery Winter Village.’
Those in Canadian public life who do point out links between Christ and holidays like Christmas or Easter, are often mocked or portrayed as religious extremists.
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilevre was harshly criticised last Easter when a newspaper advertisement of his that stated “He is Risen” emerged on social media.
Gerald Butts, former top aide and advisor to Prime Minister Trudeau, commented on the ad saying “This kind of batshittery is very common with the U.S. *Christian* right. Google Trump and Jesus sometime.”