Church, Covid and the Constitution.

by Nathan Giede

Aired March 6th, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJUinh98Kng

Does our Constitution mean anything anymore? From our earliest civics class in school or from the time we begin our path to citizenship, we are taught that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a sacred document, ensuring justice and equality for all regardless of race, class, creed, or background. The constitution sets its own measures in the opening lines, “Whereas Canada was founded on principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the Rule of Law...”

But since the pandemic began, these solemn declarations have not been the guiding principles of our public policy response to the virus. Instead, the section that immediately follows has been interpreted as broadly as possible by our authorities: “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

Let me repeat and reemphasize: our rights and freedoms are subject “only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” You can read that one of two ways - most of us would read that to mean it is difficult to restrict civil liberties and fundamental rights in Canada. But as the virus has demonstrated, our authorities believe Section 1 permits them to suspend any activities they deem to be “unsafe.”

Here in British Columbia, one of those “high risk activities” has been gathering for public worship, or, in layman’s terms, going to church is extremely dangerous. Mosques, temples, synagogues, parishes, and gurwars, were shuttered last year during the initial shutdown, and are now at over 100 days of being closed since the second lockdown began. This has resulted in many holy days of all religions going unobserved by the faithful who are becoming frustrated.

What makes this situation even worse is that while houses of the holy are closed, all of the houses of sin, vice, or worldly needs are open. You can’t go into an establishment that was built for prayer, but you can go into one that is built for booze, gambling, or marijuana; the places of worship and the churches are closed, but Walmart and Costco are open, continuing to serve thousands of people daily, while the largest shrine doesn’t get a 10th of these just once a week.

Dr. Bonnie Henry has been adamant. “Faith is not a building,” she said, "It's not about Sunday mornings, but it's about every day, and how we connect with each other and how we support each other. It's not about rights." Many of us might cite the Charter to prove her wrong as our first fundamental freedom is “of conscience and religion,” then expression, assembly, association. But Section 1 precedes our fundamental freedoms, and can be used to limit them.

Churches in the lower mainland are finally demanding clarification regarding these orders and thus they are before the BC Supreme Court alongside the government. Unfortunately for our dear leaders, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson is not interested in twisting the law into pretzels to accommodate the government’s closures of churches. Indeed, Dr. Henry filed no affidavit for the case, so Judge Hinkson asked the obvious, “how do I know what [she] is thinking and why?”

He went on, “when you deprive the complainants of the ability to understand how [she] got from A to B, the court can’t look at it, it really isn’t much of a review...it gives Dr. Henry absolute authority and if she chooses not to share her thought process with the court, there’s no oversight.” Absolute authority. No oversight. Nothing to review. It’s a miracle to hear these words from Judge Hinkson; we the faithful have been called obscenities and slurs for saying the same.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms cannot be ignored even in the midst of a pandemic. Thanks to a few brave church going souls, Dr. Henry’s orders are being weighed and measured after a year. Let us pray that they are found wanting, so we can finally get our civil liberties back.