ABSTRACT
The Office of Religious Freedom, a replacement for Rights and Democracy, and a fulfillment of the 2008 promise, was incorporated into the Conservative's 2011 election platform. This chapter examines through the record of the Canadian debate on its Office of Religious Freedom, from March 2011, to its launch in February 2013, up to its closure in early 2016. By far, in Canada the two dominant traditions represented are laicite and Judeo-Christian secularism, a not quite accurate, but close, parallel to the French and English Canadian political experience. The chapter provides a legal and political history to the Office, both the historic context of the Canadian experience, but also the immediate events that triggered the then Conservative government to make such an Office a priority in its foreign policy platform. It arranges the sources on the debate in two broad sections: first, the opponents, laicite and the New Critics; second, proponents, Judeo-Christian secularists, and the like-minded.
