Bennett, an Eastern Catholic, picked up the icon at Blessed Vasyl’s shrine in Winnipeg before his Feb. 19 appointment. Blessed Vasyl had been persecuted, imprisoned and tortured in Soviet gulags, and spent his last year in Canada where he died a martyr’s death in Canada in 1972 from the effects of the chemical and physical torture he had experienced.
The icon is a constant reminder of the importance of religious freedom as a human right, he said.
“There are lots of Vasyl Velichkovskys who are unknown across all faiths, people who suffer for what they believe,” said Bennett.
Suppression of religious freedom is often “the canary in the coal mine,” signalling a broader assault on human rights, he said.
Bennett knew when he took on the job people were wondering how he, as a devout Catholic, could possibly engage the wide variety of faith groups that face persecution around the world. He said they expected him to be biased. Yet he has found his faith has been an asset whether engaging with Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists.
“Once they find out I am a man of faith, all the barriers come down,” he said, and they can talk about freedom of religion as a fundamental human right.
His faith also helps him to better understand countries where religion “dominates public discourse.”
“In secularized countries like Canada, we ... have forgotten how to have a discussion in the public sphere. This has created a diplomatic blind spot in Canada, making it more difficult to engage in a nuanced fashion.”
The highlight of the past year has been discovering “the amount of goodwill out there” in government, in the foreign service and among the differing faith communities. His approach has been multi-faith, stressing freedom of religion as a human right based on human dignity, he said.
Freedom of religion has an “incarnational lens” that sees human beings made in the image and likeness of God, the root of human dignity, he said. This holds true whether one is Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Jewish.
Canada is focusing on 15-20 countries where there can be “a conversation” with government, civil society groups and religious communities, he said. In these countries, Canada can look at developing strategies with these contacts and support special projects to promote religious freedom. These countries include Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Ukraine, Bangladesh and China.
His office overseas a $4.25 million Religious Freedom Fund that has already funded projects in Indonesia, Nigeria, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, he said. There are other projects at the approval stage. His office has put out two calls for proposals and received more than 100 responses. The office’s overall budget is $5 million a year.
Canada also has a responsibility to call to account countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia where engagement with government and civil society groups is not possible, he said.
Over the past year he has travelled to Kazakhstan, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Israel, the West Bank and Ukraine for religious freedom concerns. He also met with representatives of countries that share Canada’s concerns about religious persecution, including France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as representatives from the EU.
Bennett acknowledges there were some concerns raised about his credentials after his appointment. His PhD from the University of Edinburgh is in political science, though he noted he is “a few credits short of a theology degree,” and he is dean of Augustine College, a small, unaccredited college that offers a one-year program in the foundations of Western civilization. He lacked diplomatic experience.
“I can understand some of the criticisms made,” Bennett said. “People didn’t know me.”
His 12 years as a civil servant, including work for Export Development Canada, had him regularly in touch with his counterparts in Foreign Affairs, he said. This gave him “a head start” in knowing the culture as well as in developing contacts. When he arrived at his new job, the attitude seemed to be, “Here’s someone who gets us,” he said.