A few weeks ago, I attended the “Grand Opening” event of a new Buddhist Temple recently constructed in my north Edmonton neighbourhood. It was a beautiful event, marked by ritual and ceremony, hospitality and fellowship. It also involved a fair bit of informal interfaith dialogue with the monks of the temple and between fellow visitors of various traditions, who, like me, appreciated the opportunity to see inside the temple and to learn what this new community was all about.

This is now the third new non-Christian prayer space and second Buddhist temple to open in my neighbourhood in recent years, the other being a new mosque, adding to the array of Christian churches and other prayer spaces already present there. It also reflects the diversity of the population that now lives in “our part” of the city: a population that values spiritual realities and draws life from religious traditions “ever ancient, ever new,” to steal St. Augustine’s formulation.
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Montreal Archbishop Christian Lépine has warned against the Parti Quebecois’ plans to enshrine Quebec values in a charter.

Once Quebec “values” are enshrined in such a charter, they are “frozen in time” and the charter “puts pressure on everyone, on institutions and individuals,” Lépine said in an interview from Montreal.

On Sept. 10, the Quebec government released details of the proposed Charter of Quebec Values that would prohibit public servants from wearing visible signs of religious belief such as Jewish skullcaps, Muslim hijabs, Sikh turbans, large crucifixes or Star of David jewellery. The government released a chart showing that small symbols such as a tiny crucifix around the neck or on earrings or a small Star of David ring would be allowed. These rules would apply to everyone employed in the public sector. The charter would also bar people whose faces are covered from providing or receiving public services.
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