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2009

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Matters Of Faith And Conscience: A Turning Point In The Taking Of Oaths In Canada, David H. Michels Jan 2009

Matters Of Faith And Conscience: A Turning Point In The Taking Of Oaths In Canada, David H. Michels

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The global expansion of the British Empire brought to its colonies British legal traditions. Non-British peoples and cultures had to adapt to these imposed legal traditions, but also left their own indelible marks of change. Following years of immigration in Canada, change was necessitated across the social order to accommodate new faiths and cultural practices of non-British origin. One example involved the taking of court oaths, a practice that in the British legal tradition traces its roots to the Protestant Christian faith. Focusing on the example of court oaths, we argue that as immigration surged at the turn of the …


Religious Justification For The Practice Of Ecclesiastical Sanctuary, David H. Michels, David Blaikie Jan 2009

Religious Justification For The Practice Of Ecclesiastical Sanctuary, David H. Michels, David Blaikie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Stories about Canadian Christian churches engaging in civil disobedience by offering sanctuary to refugee claimants have been much in the news the past several years. Typical is the case of Ms. Sanja Pecelji who fled to St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Halifax to avoid a deportation order back to Serbia-Montenegro. The church minister, Rev. Susan Moxley, stated that Ms. Pecelji and her supporters in the church community were determined that she would reside in the church until the government reviewed her application for refugee status. “The tradition of providing sanctuary to those in need is a long-standing one for the …