The Ottawa Citizen reports that former NDP Premier and Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh told the Canadian Senate national security hearings that houses of worship and private schools should be federally licensed. He wants to know what is being taught in these places to ensure that extremism is not being propagated. Dosanjh says that upholding Canadian values will be the litmus test for recognition of any such institution. This may be well-meaning enough, designed to prevent the teaching of murder by radical imams, but it is open to abuse. Is “not killing” the only Canadian value federal bureaucrats will insist upon? Might churches that oppose same-sex “marriage” or abortion be threatened with loss of charitable status? While this might seem like a good policy with one party in government, it is not too difficult to see how another could threaten religious freedom more widely than Dosanjh’s stated intent. Canada doesn’t need Patriotic Churches doing the government’s bidding or churches that are fearful to preach the Gospel lest it offend an official censor. Government licensing is incompatible with religious freedom; there are ways to target murder-preaching imams that do not entail a bureaucracy checking in on every house of worship.
