I am proud to throw my out-of-riding support behind Justin Trottier, Green Party of Ontario, who is seeking to represent the Parkdale – High Park riding. Justin Trottier is a principled and active advocate for science, reason, freedom of and from religion, nontheism, free speech, gay rights, and environmental responsibility.
I have had the pleasure of getting to know Justin during my time as a supporter of the various secular, science, reason, nontheist, humanist advocacy organizations that he has played leading roles in. Justin has been at the crest of the wave of Canadian science, reason, atheist and secular activism for, by my estimation, about 6-7 years now. He began by starting up the Toronto Secular Alliance, which simply exploded due to what was clearly perceived by a segment of the Canadian population to be a much welcomed voice. In collaboration with the US-based Center For Inquiry, TSA morphed into a combination of the Freethought Association of Canada and Centre For Inquiry Ontario, Justin heading both. These organizations played leading roles in seeing affiliated groups popping up on university and college campuses across the nation, and city centres in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, operating under the new umbrella organization, Centre for Inquiry Canada, which (unsurprisingly) has been led by Mr. Trottier.
While many atheists, agnostics, humanists, rationalists, science enthusiasts and environmentalists might easily gravitate toward Trottier, his position at the forefront of the national atheist movement may be seen a strong turn-off to others. If you are a devout conservative religionist in the Parkdale-High Park riding, there may not be much I could say to you that would bring you around to considering Trottier. However, Trottier has a lot to offer religious folk in general.
His commitment to secularism – i.e., the separation of religion from politics, such that governments can neither favour nor disfavour one religion or some religions over others, or religion over non-religion – is a commitment to ensuring a level playing field to people of all religious and belief communities. It says that, no matter what you believe, you will be treated equally under Canadian law and policy. It means that in the court room, the same laws apply to all Canadians. In the political chambers, it means that all faith and non-faith-based policy initiatives are vetted in the same way. In public education, it means subjecting ideas championed by any establishment to the same peer-reviewed processing as all other ideas before they are considered for public curriculum inclusion. It means not treating, for example, Muslims or Muslim ideas as if they deserve less than others and not treating, for example, Catholics and Catholic ideas as if they deserve more. Relatedly, both the Green Party of Ontario and a multi-faith/nonfaith coalition, the One School System Network (ONESSN), co-led by Trottier have been at the forefront of political efforts in Ontario to discontinue public funding of Catholic elementary and secondary schools, an uneconomical privilege that is available to no other religious or other community group. While some proponents of the status quo have argued that this is an anti-Catholic or anti-religious movement, nothing could be further from the truth. It is about leveling the playing field and bringing Canadians together, not dividing them by religious affiliation.
While secularism has become somewhat of a loaded word, it is something that just about all Canadians can get behind. It is freedom of and freedom from religion, which enables each of us to practice this or that religion or no religion as we like without being pressured or favoured one way or another by our public institutions.
As an advocate of free thought and an educated citizenry, Trottier has favoured introduction of public school courses on religion and belief that teach students, in a neutral fashion, about different schools of religious and nonreligious belief and value systems. As a free speech advocate, he has actively supported the free speech rights of people with markedly different politics than himself, including York University pro-life/anti-abortion activists and well-known North American conservative figures Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, when they were under investigation for speaking out against radical Islam in The Western Standard and MacLeans magazine, respectively. Trottier has also been an active supporter of LGBT equality. Yet more examples of Trottier working to level playing fields.
As an advocate of science and science-based policy, Trottier is precisely the kind of person we need in political office when it comes to addressing the growing challenges we face in healthcare, energy and environmental policy. Trottier is a man with the principle and scientific acumen to skillfully advocate for evidence-based policy.
As a person whom has had the privilege to get to know Justin Trottier the person, and not just Justin Trottier the emerging public figure, I can attest to his good character. When I first met Justin, he had already attained some public attention, but not really much. It was after I began getting to know him that he started to regularly appear on television, in newspapers, and at the forefront of a movement that had gone from being University of Toronto and downtown Toronto centred to being a well-known national cultural voice. Throughout this time, as far as I can tell, he’s still the same Justin. The same earnest, friendly, driven, passionate, and infinitely curious guy I first met in 2007.
If you are in the Parkdale – High Park riding or know someone that is, I encourage you/them to consider Justin Trottier, a grassroots champion of equality, freedom of speech, freedom of belief, science, reason, and so many of the values that make Canada one of the most admired and most progressive nations in the world.
Best of luck, Justin.
UPDATE:
Progressive Proselytizing has posted several good articles, unsurprisingly from a progressive perspective, on the candidates in the Parkdale – High Park riding.
Support Justin on Facebook by LIKING his candidacy page!
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Who’s talking?