Religion and public policy in Canada: An itinerary

Abstract

Although the intersection between religion and public policy is the subject of intense interest within and outside of the academy, the Canadian work on these often fraught phenomena is still fairly modest. In an effort to clarify some of the basic issues underlying this relatively new subfield in religious studies, in this article I address three questions. First, how is religion currently framed by existing Canadian laws and policies? Second, is there evidence that policy-makers are actually interested in academic perspectives on religion and public policy? Third, which problematic issues might merit scholarly attention in the near future? Although religion is framed in quite a positive manner in the federal policies I review, until very recently Canadian policy makers have been reluctant to engage critically the problematic social and political issues in which religion is intimately involved. However, as a result of five "source tensions" in our society, policy makers and other elite members of our society are increasingly interested in a discursive realm in which religious studies scholars have something unique to contribute.