“Our vision is to bring our ideas, our arguments, and our credible research into the policy marketplace.”

Jason Rivers
Special to Spur Ottawa

From the Canada Summer Jobs grant banning any pro-life applicants to the recent Supreme Court ruling against Trinity Western University, Canada has displayed its increasing exclusion of religious communities from the public square. While many religious individuals are grappling with how to respond, an ecumenical Christian think tank, called Cardus, recently opened an Ottawa office to help pro-actively drive the public conversation around the role of faith in today’s Canada.

“One of the sad social trends we see in Canada, now, is an amnesia about the role of faith in making this country what it is,” says Daniel Proussalidis, Cardus’ director of communications. “Society seems to be moving from amnesia, to hesitancy, if not hostility, about engaging with faith on important public issues.”

Based in Hamilton, Cardus opened a downtown Ottawa office in May 2016. Proussalidis says as the organization grew, it became necessary to be involved with government policies, charities, and the civil society that is the National Capital Region.

“Being right in the middle of where the action is, in Ottawa, is really where we want to be positioned. We like to say that we are physically located just about three doors down from Parliament. We want to be the hospitable neighbour to the activities that happen on Parliament Hill.”

“The story of Canada’s faith communities is one that’s often not told very well.”

Cardus aims to take on big questions and examines them from the perspective of society, public policies, and institutions. One of the major roles Cardus sees for itself is researching the intersection of faith and the public square.

“Our vision is to bring our ideas, our arguments, our credible research into the policy marketplace in a way that at times is fun, and is always hospitable and authentic. We welcome public and institutional engagement with our work—agree or disagree.”

Cardus’ research received wide media attention around Canada’s 150th anniversary. They partnered with the Angus Reid Institute to poll Canadians on a host of faith-related issues.

Ray Pennings, Cardus’ executive vice-president says their polling “overturned the usual narrative that faith had become unimportant or marginal in Canada.”

The study found that 80 percent of Canadians have a connection to faith, at some level, and just over 50 percent of Canadians consider their faith important to who they are.

“The story of Canada’s faith communities is one that’s often not told very well,” Pennings states, adding that they intend to continue their partnership with Angus Reid. “We want to track how Canadians’ attitudes and opinions change in relation to faith, year by year, and make those finding public.”

“We try to shine a light on just how relevant and important faith remains in Canada,” says Proussalidis.