CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 6:51AM EST Last Updated Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 2:36PM EST<\/p>\n
Andrew Bennett has been named ambassador for Canada's Office of Religious Freedom, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today. <\/p>\n
Bennett, a Catholic, is dean of Augustine College, a Christian liberal arts college in Ottawa. He has a PhD in politics from the University of Edinburgh and a master of arts in history from Montreals McGill University. <\/p>\n
During an announcement at the Ahmadiyya Muslim community centre and mosque in Vaughan, Ont., on Tuesday afternoon, Harper described Bennett as a scholar, a man of principle and deep conviction. <\/p>\n
His role at the newly-established office will be to monitor religious freedom around the world. <\/p>\n
He will promote it as a key objective to Canadian foreign policy. And Dr. Bennett will help ensure the protection of religious freedom informs the policy and programs of the Government of Canada. <\/p>\n
The office will focus on advocacy, policy development and programming that aims to protect and advocating on behalf of religious minorities that are under threat. <\/p>\n
Harper said the office will also promote Canadian values of pluralism and tolerance in countries where there is evidence of extreme violations of the right to freedom of religion. <\/p>\n
Human rights groups and opposition critics have said the office is a misguided attempt to inject religion into foreign policy. <\/p>\n
They also questioned what exactly it can accomplish with a modest $5-million budget. <\/p>\n
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Scholar Andrew Bennett to lead Canada's Office of Religious Freedom<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 6:51AM EST Last Updated Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 2:36PM EST Andrew Bennett has been named ambassador for Canada's Office of Religious Freedom, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today Continue reading