Last month, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) released a discussion paper that says celebrating Christianity's two biggest holidays could be seen as a form of "religious intolerance," as non-Christians might need to request special accommodations to observe their own faiths' holy days.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, says the report looks at historical events and societal preferences in a way that effectively paints Christians in a negative light. It advises Canadians to "acknowledge Canada's history of religious intolerance, and more importantly, its existence today" in order to make the country "more inclusive and accepting."
Targeting the Christian faith, Staver says, is nothing new.
"This is clearly a Marxist, socialist tactic that has been around for many, many decades," he tells AFN. It is just another way to secularize and ultimately eliminate religious-based holidays.
It was done in the 1970s as the Soviet Union spread communism. Staver says Ukraine used to celebrate Christmas, but as communism took over, terminology used around the holiday was reworded to celebrate the rise of communism.
For example, "Merry Christmas" was replaced with "Happy Holidays." The people who protested, were eliminated.
"It's very obvious that history is repeating itself," the attorney submits. "We've seen this pattern before, where tyrannous governments -- secularist, atheistic governments -- come into power or control and then seek to eliminate any religious vestiges."
"The consequences are that it develops a very hostile attitude toward people of faith, and particularly to Christianity," Staver observes. "It moves from just secularizing the event, to eliminating the celebration, to ultimately targeting people of Christian faith and values."
Poland and Cuba have seen a similar series of events.
Now, Canada is not the only North American country pushing for this. In the U.S., Michigan schools have a policy to denigrate Christmas by trying to use it as a time to talk about the evils of "whiteness." And every Christmas season, Liberty Counsel deals with efforts across the nation to neutralize the Christian holiday.
Staver concludes that society cannot sit back and expect this to stop on its own. People must push back and speak up on social media, in letters, and/or by attending public gatherings and protests. Silence, he says, is not an option.
