God help us all...except you

Canada's Reactionary Biblicofascist Conservative government is looking to erase any notion of a separation between church and state in its proposed Defence of Religions Act. According to the draft legislation, public officials will be legally able to discriminate against other Canadians based on their particular religious "orientation".

As I am sure readers of this page, there are a multitude of religious traditions in this country, many of which are odd with each other. Many Canadians are put off by these unending conflicts and subsequently don't follow any religious tradition. The public wasn't going to abide by Ontario courts judging cases by Islamic Sharia law: Why should should right-wing Christian Fundamentalist doctrine determine who someone on the public payroll will marry in a civil ceremony, or for that matter, determine which legal procedures a doctor will perform in a public health care system ?

If the state is willing to protect fanatical zealots who want to abuse public institutions to deny Canadians their rights to equality, liberty, and everything else guaranteed by the Charter, what else is the state willing to condone in defence of "religion"? Given the contradictions among Canada's religions, it would be inevitable that one religious tradition would prevail to the point of calling the shots. It must be going terribly in Afghanistan when Canada's government is sounding more like the Taliban than the Afghans are sounding like a functioning democracy.