It is “Christian Heritage Month” in Toronto, and some progressives in Canada’s largest city aren’t happy about it. The designation is part of a new campaign to have December recognized nationally as Christian Heritage Month, and the organizers—Jay and Molly Banerjei of the Christian Music Festival—are carefully curating their pitch by emphasizing that their multi-denominational organization is united by the “values of inclusivity, unity, and faith.” The province of Saskatchewan has signed on; forty other cities, towns, and villages have done so thus far, as well, including Ajax, Mississauga, Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Red Deer, Whistler, and Prince George. It is revealing that some progressives see this anodyne project as such a threat.
“How do you take over an empire?” Carl Trueman wrote several years ago, “That is a question that I used as a title for a lecture I have each year in my Ancient Christianity class. The answer is simple to state but somewhat more difficult to achieve in practice: You simply need to control time and space.” Trueman observes that the LGBT movement understands this well, which is why they push constantly to colonize the calendar and insist that “Pride proclamations” be issued by small towns and villages and the rainbow flag be hoisted everywhere. In Canada, in addition to the now four-month long Pride Season, there are another 20 dates or weeks dedicated to LGBT causes.
But adding Christian Heritage Month to the calendar, it turns out, is a bridge too far (unlike, say, “Celebrate Bisexuality Day,” which occupies September 23). During the debate at the Toronto City Council, Councillor Gord Perks unleashed a foam-flecked tirade, insisting that other religious “heritage” days and months were merely an “effort to rebalance” Canada. Perks noted that the Constitution begins with the phrase “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” He went on to state that, in our country, “Every day, every minute, every second, every law, everything we do is Christian time. It is the law of this land.”
Perks’ objection to Christian Heritage Month, it turns out, is that it might more accurately be called “Canadian Heritage Month.” Perks ranted about abortion, the Christian Heritage Party (“that party is anti-abortion, anti-same-sex marriage”), residential schools, and the very validity of Canada’s founding. “Language matters,” he asserted. “The phrase ‘Christian heritage’ is not a neutral phrase in the Canadian political landscape.” Councillor Lily Cheng rose to respond, saying, “This is actually a very difficult debate to me because I feel like we’re putting a whole faith on trial here … Christianity saved my life.” Sharing some of her own struggles, she added tearfully, “Kind, gracious people loved me and showed me that I was worthy to be loved, and they walked with me so patiently, and who I am today would not be without this faith that has carried me.”
The debate at the Toronto City Council is a microcosm of a debate unfolding across Canada between those who despise Canada’s heritage, and those who see it as essential and worth celebrating. Perks, for his part, recognizes that Canada was founded as a Christian nation—but he sees those values as our original sin. To people like Perks, Canada’s embrace of LGBT ideology, the destruction of children in the womb, and assisted suicide are what we should be celebrating. According to Canada’s annual “MAID” report, 15,343 people died by euthanasia in 2023. Your view on whether that is a tragedy probably tracks pretty closely with your view on “Christian Heritage Month.” I am all for studying history. What I am tired of, however, is progressives weaponizing history by cherry-picking a handful of examples for the purpose of deliberately discrediting Christianity and Western civilization itself.
The sins of Christian civilization are much discussed; the sins of pre-Christian cultures and post-Christian society, not so much. Politicians like Perks are as disinterested in discussing the slave-trading practices and other barbarisms of Canada’s indigenous peoples as they are in discussing the magnificent Christian campaign, which lasted from 1787 to 1833, to wipe out first the slave trade and then slavery itself from the British Empire, of which Canada was then still a part. It is not rare that cultures accepted the sin of slavery, as a study of Canada’s First Nations reveals. It is extraordinary that an empire at the height of its power would reject this ancient wickedness on purely Christian, moral grounds. That, surely, is worth celebrating during Christian Heritage Month.
It is an easy thing to damn a civilization by highlighting the wrongs of those who enacted policies or committed deeds that were at odds with Christian principles. For every politician to condemn, there is one to celebrate. Take John Graves Simcoe, who as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada in 1793 championed the “Act Against Slavery,” telling the Legislative Assembly that: “The principles of the British Constitution do not admit of that slavery which Christianity condemns. The moment I assume the Government of Upper Canada under no modification will I assent to a law that discriminates by dishonest policy between natives of Africa, America, or Europe.”
That, I suspect, is a better day’s work than Perks has ever done—and the Act, it should be noted, came 14 years before British Parliament outlawed the slave trade, and fully forty years before they banned slavery entirely. If Simcoe isn’t an acceptable candidate (perhaps he is too white?), then maybe Perks would instead assent to celebrating the Reverend Josiah Henson during Christian Heritage Month. Henson was the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin; he escaped slavery for Upper Canada in 1830, settling in what is now Dresden, Ontario. The magnificent little museum there is well worth visiting and provides ample testimony of the great abolitionist and pastor who often thanked God for Canada, that haven from slavery. I’ve often thought he should be put on a banknote.
Canada’s Christian heritage is not the sad, sordid saga that Perks has attempted to convey, and only ignorance and bigotry (I suspect both) could produce such bile. The only reason we know so much about the sins of the men and women who inhabited Canada, and so little about their virtues, is because many progressives hate Christianity. John Graves Simcoe, incidentally, is the founder of Toronto, establishing what was then known as York in 1793. He should be remembered this month, in the city he founded. And we should remember his words: “Let the groundwork of your whole conduct be a just respect for and love of God; know that with such respect, every man must necessarily be brave.” In the Year of Our Lord 2025, Christian Heritage Month should be celebrated across Canada.
