Politicians, media target during election
It was nasty.
Most pundits agree that the recent federal campaign saw more personal attacks than Canadians are accustomed to. But it was the Christian community that found itself on the defensive as political leaders who sought to criticize Alliance leader Stockwell Day's evangelical beliefs, ended up swiping at whole faith communities.
Jean Chrétien, for example, mocked Day's commitment to set aside Sunday as a day for family and faith and his belief in creationism.
Hedy Fry, minister for both Multiculturalism and the Status of Women, said Day's claim that "Jesus Christ is the God of the whole universe...is an insult to every Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, everybody else who believes in other religions." She further contended that Day wants to "abuse his political power by making all Canadians believe, as he said, that Jesus Christ is the God of the whole universe."
Her comments brought swift reaction from those very groups, arguing that Fry's statements were undermining religious freedom. Representatives from evangelical Christian community, including Gary Walsh of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada as well as Jews, Catholics and Muslims, released a joint statement calling on politicians and media to be more
tolerant of 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," the statement said.
The Catholic Civil Rights League went further, saying that the "anti-religious" remarks by Chrétien and Fry reveal "a despising of religion that all Canadians of all religious beliefs should find frightening."
EFC's Walsh observed "the blatant bias of some journalists and even some politicians in denigrating the leader of the Canadian Alliance because of his faith commitments."
Regent College theology professor John Stackhouse says there is a deep irony when secularists accuse Day of intolerance because of his faith and suggest that an evangelical Christian would impose his morality on the nation.
"The post-Christian, largely secularist elite is just as convinced of the righteousness of their positions, but their understanding of righteousness is one of maximum individual liberty, whereas the understanding of Christians is of balancing liberty with community responsibility in a way that seriously curtails the rights of some. [Christians] are open about it in a way that [the secularists] are only sometimes open about it."
Stackhouse says the base discussion is actually one about alternate visions of morality.
"This arguing about 'I'm more Canadian than you because I'm more tolerant' is specious," he says, because each group is actually arguing for the same thing, which is "where to draw the line for the flourishing of human life."
Christian broadcaster Lorna Dueck, host of 100 Huntley Street, which interviewed Day, accuses the media of maligning the whole of Christian faith by brushing all Christians with Alliance-style conservative politics.
"How absurd. Even as an insider, I haven't figured out the mysteries of what makes a Christian act in any given way on public issues," she wrote in The Globe and Mail.
Media bias accusations
The perception of biased reporting was shared by a number of viewers, especially those who followed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's coverage of the campaign. Observers take particular issue with a documentary aired November 14 called The Fundamental Day, broadcast on the CBC National Magazine segment. It reviewed his religious beliefs, focusing on his creationist beliefs. Day himself was angered about the piece, calling the report's analysis of his creationist beliefs "yellow journalism" because the report did not call him to confirm crucial facts to the story. He says the story made untrue allegations about his beliefs.
On the CBC website, there are multiple pages of viewers' reaction to its coverage of Day, most of who accuse the federally-funded agency of unfairly maligning Day's beliefs.
Brian De Vries of Calgary reflects the sentiment of multiple viewers who posted their views: "Your anti-religious bigotry is sickening...Your reporting does not seek to report events but to shape them according to your own politically anti-conservative, anti-religious agenda." Others accused the CBC of being insensitive, slanted and biased.
CBC TV News and Newsworld bureau chief Dan Leger shrugged off the accusations. In a website editorial, he says that Canadians should know everything there is to know about anyone who wants to be Prime Minister. He concludes by saying, "If everyone is mad at us, we must be doing something right."
But the reaction was obviously strong enough to prompt an investigation by the CBC ombudsman, who convened a review in early December, the results of which aren't yet known.
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