The Jewish argument for freedom of religion is embedded in the Old Testament, the former chief rabbi of Britain told an enthralled audience at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio March 15.

OTTAWA - It’s been five years since the assassination of Pakistani Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, but his religious freedom legacy lives on in Canada and around the world. 

OTTAWA - Religious Freedom Ambassador Andrew Bennett has received a temporary extension of his contract with Global Affairs Canada—at least until March 31.

In an exclusive commentary for Religion News Service, President Barack Obama makes the case for religious freedom.

MONTREAL - The greatest threat to religious freedom in Canada is silence, Canada’s ambassador for Religious Freedom told more than 700 university students attending the Rise Up conference in Montreal.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is waging a campaign to defund Planned Parenthood, an effort involving pastors, sermons and fasting that the Texas senator insists isn’t political.

HONG KONG - Cardinal John Tong Hon of Hong Kong has issued an "urgent appeal" to Communist Party chiefs in Beijing, calling on them to order a halt to an ongoing cross-removal campaign from Christian churches in Zhejiang province.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged continued support for religious freedom, promising $9 million to help persecuted religious minorities.

OTTAWA - On July 20, 2005 same-sex marriage became legal in Canada. Ten years later, Canada has experienced a steady erosion of religious freedom and conscience rights, undergone negative changes in sex education and parental rights, while also seeing a shift in the rights of children, according to several observers.

A future historian (on the generous assumption that there are any) might plausibly contend that the first salvo of the “culture wars” was fired in January 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court released its Roe v. Wade abortion decision. He might also conclude that the same Court’s June 2015 decision declaring gay marriage to be a constitutionally protected right represented a final victory.

The Little Sisters of the Poor — nuns who have refused to comply with the Affordable Care Act contraception mandate — lost their latest court case July 14.

VATICAN CITY - Vatican and Palestinian representatives have finalized the text of a formal agreement recognizing freedom of religion in the "State of Palestine" and outlining the rights and obligations of the Catholic Church, its agencies and its personnel in the territory.

With two decisions this spring, the Supreme Court of Canada set laudable boundaries between the necessarily neutral state and the exercise of religious freedom.

If you ever visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing on a Sunday and decide you would like to attend Mass at Our Lady of China, you will have to catch Line Two from the Qianmen subway station just south of the square and travel six stations to Dongzhimen. Walk about five minutes west from Dongzhimen and you will find yourself at the front gate of the Canadian Embassy. Inside the embassy on Sundays expatriates from Africa, Europe, Canada and elsewhere gather to form their own parish.