A Brief History of Law and Religious Institutions in Canada

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Pages: 31-54

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CHAP TER 2

A BRIEF HISTORY OF

LAW AND RELIGIOUS

INSTITUTIONS IN

CANADA

A. I NTRODUC TION

The history of religious inst itutions and the law in Canada was, until

the late twentieth centur y, the history of Christianity in Canada in its

many forms, its relationships with governments (whether foreign, col-

onial, federal, or provincia l) and with the society in wh ich it found

itself and whose shape it inf‌luenced in fundamental ways. Indeed, the

assumption brought to the New World by most of the Christian com-

munities of post-Reformation Europe was that the allia nces of church

and state enjoyed in the origin ating states in Europe would be replicat-

ed in the New World, as would the societies of Western Europe, newly

purged of their undesirable character istics. While the motives for the

establi shment of overs eas colonie s were pri marily economic, polit ical,

and strategic, it was also widely accepted by contemporaries not only

that the famil iar patterns of Chr istendom would be continued in the

New World but also that this was necessary to civili ze the New World

and advance the kingdom of God throughout the whole world.

Once the major states of early modern Europe had l aid claim to

their overs eas colonie s, the inev itable inter-colonial riv alries, whether

economic, political, or militar y, grew up, ref‌lecting not only local an-

noyances but also European-based rivalries, including inter-state reli-

gious frictions. In addition, since m any overseas colonies comprised

settlers of rival religious denomin ations within Europe, int ra-colonial

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND THE LAW I N CA NADA32

religious disputes and ma noeuvring for supremacy also inevitably oc-

curred.

In the New World as in the Old World, the division between Roman

Catholic and Protestant remained the major fault-line along which

states would be built, outranking in social and political importance the

divisions of the Protesta nt Reformation — Anabaptist, Angl ican, and

Reformed, whose European rivalr ies also continued in North Amer-

ica. Indeed, much of Canadian political and social history from the

founding of New France to the era of the Charter can be w ritten as the

history of Chri stianity in Canada, its relig ious institutions, and the

state, so profound has the role of the Christian churches been directly

on national life but also indirectly through the peculiar ways in which

social and political i ssues have been framed for much of the histor y of

both public and private life in Canada. While the sectarian disputes of

the nineteenth century were ex plicitly framed a s denominational r ival-

ries, the secula r debates of the twentieth centur y on major social issues

retained a theological undercur rent about how best to order a moral

society in the northern part of the Western hemisphere.

It is impossible to write a thorough history of religion in Canada

in one chapter suitable as an introduction to that subject and as back-

ground to a legal text. This chapter wi ll survey superf‌icia lly the major

events insofar as they are related to the legal topics to which this book

is primarily devoted.1

1 This chapter i s based on several general hi stories of religion in Can ada and

not on any origin al research. Genera l histories of religion in Ca nada are rare,

although the rece nt revival of interest in the s ubject amongst Canadian h istor-

ians, as ev idenced by the large number of spec ial topic books published in the

past two decade s, suggests that thi s history will become bett er understood. Ref-

erence to some of thes e relevant works will be m ade in footnotes below as ap-

propriate to the te xt. The general histories in c hronological order are as follows:

H.H. Walsh, The Christian Church in Canada (Toronto: Ryerson, 1956); H.H.

Wals h, The Church in the French Era (Toronto: Ryerson, 1966); John S. Moir,

The Church in the British Era (Toronto: Ryerson, 1972); John Webster Grant, The

Church in the Canadian Era (Toronto: Ryerson, 1972); updated and expanded

edition by John G. Stac khouse (Vancouver: Regent College, 1998); Robert T.

Handy, A History of the Churches in the United States a nd Canada (Oxford: Oxford

University Pr ess, 1976); Mark A. Noll, A History of Chri stianity in the United

States and Cana da (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman s, 1992); Terrence Murphy &

Roberto Perin, e ds., A Concise History of Christianity in Cana da (Toronto: Oxford

University Pr ess, 1996); and John S. Moir, Christianity in Canada: Hist orical

Essays (Yorkton, SK: Redeemer’s Voice Press, 2002). Two recent collections of

essays ex plore specif‌ic topics and contai n extensive bibliographie s: Marguerite

Van Die, ed., Religion and Public Life in Canad a: Historical and Comparative Per-

spectives (Toronto: University of Toronto Pres s, 2001); and David Lyon & Mar-