On Parliament Hill

As many of you have likely heard, a pastor in North Korea has been imprisoned for preaching his faith in that country. Unfortunately North Korea considered this a crime against the state and gave the pastor a life sentence in a labour camp. As the Member of Parliament for Provencher, I wanted to share some of my views with you on this matter.

Although we are blessed to live in a strong and prosperous country, I am concerned about the direction that we are headed. Many of the values of faith, hard work and family that define our communities here in Provencher are becoming less prominent across Canada. As your MP, it is my responsibility to defend these beliefs in our nation’s capital.

Canada has long been known as a country where our freedoms were protected. Freedom of speech and religion, for example, not only protected our rights, they also gave us the ability to shape the values of our country. However, as a society we need to be responsible and ensure that we balance these democratic rights with the best interests of the country. In other words, one`s freedom should not allow them to undermine Canadian laws.

In Canada today, we face several challenges on this front. First, there is a push from those who would prefer to limit our fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of religion. Secondly, we have those who would use some of these freedoms to undermine the very Canadian laws that have stood the test of time and that have made Canada the country we are today. These laws have been influenced and established by our values of faith, hard work and family.

In either case, these challenges pose a risk to the values that have helped build our country. One needs only to look around the world to see what happens when this delicate balance goes awry. Take North Korea as an example, where simply preaching your faith can be considered a serious criminal offence.

This is certainly not the case in Canada, however I believe that as a democratic country, we must be vigilant to ensure that our freedoms are not slowly taken away from us.