Civil Religion and Secularism in Canada.

This paper analyzes the predominant mode of interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a species of civil religion. The Charter is simultaneously a document for human rights and for national unity, and this paper examines ways that the former have been used to construct the latter. Specifically, the Charter has come to be seen as expressing a society that realizes itself progressively in historical time, toward increased respect for human rights and individuality. In order to do this, the Supreme Court has articulated what it deems a specific Canadian "way of life" summarized by what is often referred to as the "expressive" or "autonomous" self. This self conceives itself as pure potential and freely creates its identity and obligations; it is ahistorical and unencumbered by traditions or demands by community. It is the expression of postmodernism. This paper focuses on court cases where identity claims by traditional religious communities conflict with this new "autonomous" self, and shows how, even when the Supreme Court decides in favor of traditional religious communities, its justifications are based on the language of the "autonomous" self, which undermines theunique contributions such groups provide to a pluralistic civil society. Canadian unity, therefore, is bought by a construction of an "autonomous" self that paradoxically recognizes no claims of community and makes its own claim for self-divinization in a postmodern mode. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]