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15
5
ROSALIE JUKIER
JOSÉ WOEHRLING
Religion and the Secular State in Canada
I.
T
HE
R
ELIGIOUS AND
S
OCIAL
C
OMPOSITION OF
C
ANADA
Canada is a country of 33.8 million people populating a vast
geographic area of
almost 10 million km
2
, stretching 8,000 km from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Its
current demographic composition is both a natural consequence of its founding peoples,
the French Roman Catholics who settled New France (or Lower Ca
nada, now the
province of Quebec), the English Protestants who settled Upper Canada (now Ontario)
and the aboriginal communities that lived here for millennia
,
1
as well as the product of a
robust immigrant population from around the world. These complexiti
es make it
difficult to pinpoint the religious and social composition of Canada in just one or two
sentences. It would be most accurate to describe Canada as a bilingual, multicultural
federation operating within a pluralistic society.
2
The data pertaini
ng to the religious and social composition of Canada
that was used
in the original prepration of this Report in 2010
was compiled in the 2001 census, at a
3
Its results reveal that seven out of
every ten Ca
nadians self
–
identified as either Roman Catholic or Protestant,
4
with almost
R
OSALIE
J
UKIER
is Professor in the Faculty of Law
at McGill University
and
a member of its Paul
–
André
Crépeau
Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law.
Her principal academic interests lie in the area of
comparative private law.
Professor Jukier wishes to thank Corey Omer and Michael Otto for their invaluable
research assistance which was made possible by t
he generosity of the Wainwright Trust of the Faculty of Law,
McGill University
.
J
OS
É
W
OEHRLING
is Professor in
the Faculté de droit de l
Université
de Montréal, with principal academic
interests in Canadian constitutional law and comparative international law, human rights, and minorities.
Professor Woehrling wishes to thank Arnaud Decroix for his researc
h assistance in preparing this R
eport.
[This R
eport has been updated by the authors for the 2014 publication, and the portions which appeared in
French in the 2012 Interim Volume have been translated into English.]
1
. At the time of the initial presentation of this Report, t
he most recent 2006 Canadia
n Census enumerate
d
1,172,790 Aboriginal people in Canada, comprising 3.8 percent of the country
s total population.
See Statistics
Canada,
Aboriginal Peoples in Canada in 2006: Inuit, Métis and First Nations
(Aboriginal Peoples, 2006
Census), Statistics C
anada Catalogue no. 97
–
558
–
XIE2006001 (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 2008), online:
Statistics Canada
,
http://www12.statcan.ca/census
–
recensement/2006/as
–
sa/97
–
558/p2
–
eng.cfm
.
Since this
Report was originally prepared, there has been a 2011 National
Household Survey in Canada reporting the
aboriginal population at 1.4 million or 4.3
percent
of the population
.
See
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily
–
quotidien/130508/dq130508a
–
eng.htm
2
.
Contrary to the
melting pot
notion prevalent in the United States, Canada sees itself as a mosaic
celebrating multiple identities.
In 1985, Parliament passed the
Canadian Multiculturalism Act
, R.S.C. 1985
(4th Su), c. 24 aimed at promoting the understanding that multiculturalism ref
lects the cultural and racial
diversity of Canadian society and is a fundamental characteristic of Canadian heritage and identity, and
acknowledging the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve, enhance and share their cultural
heritage.
3
.
A
lthough Canada conducts a census every five years, questions pertaining to religious affiliation are
only asked every ten years and as such, the data from 2001
was
the most recent official data on this subject
at
the time this Report was prepared
. See
Stat
istics Canada,
Religions in Canada
(2001 Census: analysis series),
Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 96F0030XIE2001015 (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 2003), online:
Statistics
Canada
,
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/rel/p
df/
96F0030XIE
2001015.pdf
(Statistics Canada,
Religions
).
As mentioned in note 1 above, there
has been a more recent
census, the
2011
National Household Survey.
Statistics that are significantly different from those obtained
from the 2001 census will be
highlighted.
4
.
Id
.
at 5
.
According to the 2001 census, 72
percent
of the population identified as either Catholic or
Protestant.
The 2011 figures indicate that the population identifying as Christian is down to 67.3
percent
.
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