The 2009-2010 John J. Wintermeyer Lecture
Religious Freedom at a Crossroads: Multiculturalism or Pluralism?
Lori G. Beaman, PhD, Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada
Friday, October 30, 2007 / 7:30 p.m.
Media attention to religious diversity in Canada has exposed the possibility that we are at a crossroads in Canada in relation to religious freedom. This is a discussion, however, that cannot be separated from broader visions of who we are as a country and where we are or would like to head. Specifically, the deployment of “Canadian values” rhetoric is being used to challenge the project of multiculturalism based on an argument, largely imported from Europe, that multiculturalism is not working. This talk will examine some of the public discussion about religious diversity and Canadian values in light of the legal interpretation of religious freedom under human rights legislation.
Lori G. Beaman, Ph.D. is Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada and Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious studies at University of Ottawa. She is author of Defining Harm: Religious Freedom and the Limits of the Law (UBC Press, 2008), editor of Religion and Canadian Society: Traditions, Transitions and Innovations. (Toronto: Scholar’s Press, 2006); and co-editor, with Peter Beyer of Religion, Globalization and Culture, (Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2007). Her research on religious freedom is regularly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her secondary research interest is on religious ritual and tourism, especially labyrinths.
This lecture was endowed by a special fund created by family and friends in memory of the late John J. Wintermeyer.
