Recent meeting with Trudeau leaves Canadian faith leaders ‘teary eyed’

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This article was published 17/12/2024 (321 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Finding ways religious groups can deal with division and polarization was the focus of a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and representatives from Canadian faith groups last week.

The Dec. 10 meeting, arranged at the request of Trudeau and conducted through the auspices of the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, brought together representatives from the Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Baha’i, Christian and Indigenous communities in Ottawa.

“The prime minister wanted to know what we could do to help,” said Peter Noteboom, co-chair of the organization, which brings faith groups together to collaborate on social action.

Trudeau also was interested in hearing about the hopes and challenges facing each group, Noteboom said.

“I felt heard by him, that he heard our concerns,” said Imran Yar, an Imam from north of Toronto, who spoke on behalf of Muslims at the meeting.

Trudeau “encouraged us to have more engagement with each other and to work together,” Yar said, adding he told the PM Muslims in Canada “want to be good citizens.”

Pandit Roopnauth Sharma, a Hindu priest from Toronto, agreed the PM was attentive and a good listener.

“He asked how we were talking to each other,” Sharma said.

Trudeau made specific reference to the tensions between the Jewish and Muslim and Sikh and Hindu communities, Sharma said, telling the faith leaders he was prepared to facilitate meetings between those groups if requested.

Leanne Friesen’s message to Trudeau was about the importance of religious freedom for everyone. The executive minister of the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec said she was moved listening to representatives from non-Christian religions who spoke about feeling unsafe in Canada.

She also spoke about the need for the federal government to see faith groups as partners in serving Canadians through food banks, social services and affordable housing.

David Wells used the meeting as an opportunity to tell the PM members of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada believe in the value of respect for all Canadians, no matter the religious differences or distinctions.

“We can live generous lives of respect for each other,” he said.

The general superintendent of the Pentecostal group shared the feeling faith was being squeezed to the margins by an increasingly secular society. Trudeau replied that he understood the important role faith played in the lives of many Canadians, Wells said.

A highlight of the meeting was when one faith leader, who didn’t want to be named, apologized to the prime minister on behalf of his group for the angry and disrespectful things some members had said about him in the past. He went on to ask for Trudeau’s forgiveness.

“I wasn’t planning to say it, it wasn’t in my prepared notes,” the faith leader later told the Free Press. “But the spirit led me to apologize.”

Representatives from other groups echoed that apology on behalf of their members and, in response, Trudeau said it was all part of the job to be criticized.

“Everyone was teary eyed,” said Shaila Kibria Carter, co-chair of the Canadian Interfaith Conversation and a member of the Muslim community.

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