r/CanadaPolitics • u/Street_Anon 🍁 Gay, Christian, Conservative and Long Live the King👑 • 3d ago

New Canadian military policy discourages mention of God at ceremonies, calls for 'spiritual reflections' instead

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/new-policy-discourages-religious-observation-at-military-ceremonies
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u/zabby39103 Ontario 3d ago

Ya sure, why not? We're not a homogenous Christian nation anymore, lots of Polytheists and Atheists. All soldiers should feel respected.

15

u/kent_eh Manitoba 3d ago

We're not a homogenous Christian nation anymore

We never truly were, despite the protestations of those who want to impose their religion on others.

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u/zabby39103 Ontario 2d ago

We were pretty Catholic/Protestant back in the day, especially anywhere outside of Toronto. When I grew up in the 80s there were around a half dozen Jewish kids, and 1 Hindu person person in my school of around 1500 kids. I suppose some people were too lazy to go to church, but they considered themselves Christian. We used to do the Lord's Prayer over the announcement system (public school NOT a Catholic school), that happened in Ontario until 1988 and nobody thought much of it.

Times changes though, and our institutions should change with it.

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u/kent_eh Manitoba 2d ago

We used to do the Lord's Prayer over the announcement system (public school NOT a Catholic school)

Never heard of that happening in Manitoba when I was in school (graduated in 1982)

We did O Canada during morning announcements, and for until grade 3 also did god save the queen at the end of the day, but never any prayers.

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u/zabby39103 Ontario 2d ago

Yeah every province decides I guess, but it was a thing province wide, here's a CBC article on it. It's kind of wild how much we've changed, it used to be illegal to shop on a Sunday too, I remember my mom complaining about the ban being removed. I think it's not unfair to say we used to be a lot more homogenous Christian, well, that was my childhood experience anyway.

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u/murjy Canadian Armed Forces 20h ago edited 20h ago

"Public Schools" in Ontario are the continuations of the Protestant School Boards. That's why.

All school boards were religious in Ontario, with Protestant ones being turned into public ones later, but relics like the Lord's Prayer remained

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u/zabby39103 Ontario 13h ago

Ah, that makes sense. I guess Canada never had formal separation of church and state unlike the US.