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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 68

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 10, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 68 - May/10/22
Mr. Chandra Arya
  • May/10/22 1:02:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, 80% of Canadians practise one religious faith or another. As I have said, this is more of a cultural thing, a tradition of the country's heritage that we share every morning.
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Context: House Hansard - 68 - May/10/22
Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)
  • May/10/22 5:34:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do not know why the member would object to praying for the Queen. He might want to use the prayer from Fiddler on the Roof: “May God bless and keep the czar far away from us.” That might be the kind of prayer the member would prefer. In seriousness, he made a general argument against tradition, saying that some things have changed and other things can change too. Of course things can change and some changes have been good changes. However, that does not absolve us of the responsibility to critically evaluate the reasons that a tradition might have been in place previously and if there are downsides to removing that tradition. In this case, we have a brief prayer followed by an opportunity for reflection, and that seems to be an inclusive formula. People have an opportunity to engage in secular reflection as they may wish, and there is also a very open-ended monotheistic prayer that really anybody from a monotheistic religious tradition can buy into. Does the member at least accept that making this dramatic change to tradition in one opposition day is not the best way to proceed?
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