Canada’s change of faith

The Masjid Toronto mosque occupies a prime section in the commercial heart of Toronto.

Located just west of Bay and Dundas the mosque cost over $2 million dollars to build and wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for a large fundraising drive.

The mosque itself isn’t a large place. Two rooms, one for “brothers” and one for “sisters” are used throughout the day for prayer. A visitor going into the brother’s prayer room will see a space about the size of a large living room, covered with a giant carpet. On a Thursday afternoon a half-dozen men can be seen praying. Some have long beards, some have none at all. At the front of the room there is a shelf containing copies of the Koran.

At the back books and information pamphlets are arranged on a table offering information on the Koran and its history.

Outside of the prayer space I bumped into two men who were chatting about business and home-life.

While this mosque is a place of worship, it is in some ways much more then that, it is a sign of the future.

A Statistics Canada report found that the number of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs in Canada doubled between 1991 and 2001. Although numbers for 2006 (the last census) haven’t been released yet, there is little doubt that they will grow.

The spiritual fabric of Canadian cities has changed more in the past 20 years then it did in the previous 200, and it’s going to continue to change for the foreseeable future.

So why is this important?

Once you think about it Canada has long been run on the assumption that most of us are from a Christian background.

Classes and exams at Ryerson run on Friday, an important religious day for devout Muslims. On the other hand they do not run on Sunday, an important day for most Christian groups.

Stores and government services close down during Christmas and Good Friday but stay open during Ramadan, Vaisakhi, Diwali, Nirvana Day and other religious observances.

In Ontario we fund Roman Catholic schools but don’t fund any other religious schools.

Can we continue to declare Christian observances as statutory holidays when more and more Canadians are from a non-Christian background? How do we accommodate people not from two but from more then twenty different religions?

These are questions that political, legal and religious leaders are scratching their heads trying to answer. Ryerson’s own senate is conducting a review on the school's religious policies. The Supreme Court of Canada made a ruling two years ago allowing Sikhs to bring the Kirpan, a ceremonial dagger to school.

Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory was defeated in the provincial election over a highly-controversial promise to fund religious schools as long as they adopted the Ontario curriculum and hired qualified teachers. Also few can forget the heated debate over Ontario allowing Sharia law in arbitration.

As the faith of Canadians continues to change, these questions will play a large role in the national debate and challenge how we run the country.