Fri Jun 3, 2022 – 5:48 pm EDT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) – Ohio legislators approved a bill on Wednesday urging the Biden administration to add Canada to its “Special Watch List” of countries notorious for “violating religious freedom.”
The resolution, called “Urge addition of Canada to religious freedom Special Watch List,” was initiated by Republican state lawmakers Reggie Stoltzfus and Timothy E. Ginter. The bill specifically asks the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to formally add Canada to its “Special Watch List” of countries that abuse “religious liberty,” putting the nation alongside countries like Afghanistan and Somalia.
“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that ‘Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms,’ which include the ‘freedom of conscience and religion.’ The arrests and actions described below, taken to enforce overly burdensome and unjustified orders, however, do not seem to live up to this praiseworthy statement,” reads the bill, which goes on to cite the arrests of various Canadian pastors, including Artur Pawlowski and James Coates, as examples of Canada’s “abuses of religious liberty.”
“All of the Canadian provinces have at times prohibited religious gatherings outright, or have limited the size of religious gatherings,
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