Religious freedom envoy joins think tank

OTTAWA— Religious freedom ambassador Andrew Bennett has joined a public policy think-tank amid uncertainty over the future of his office under the Liberal government.

The Canadian Press has learned that Bennett has become a senior fellow at Cardus, a research group that bills its work as stemming from “2,000 years of Christian social thought.”

He will also chair the group’s Faith in Canada 150 program while he serves out the balance of his term as ambassador.

“I look forward very much to working with Cardus, the think tank best placed in my view to reaffirm the essential and foundational role of faith in our common life as Canadians,” Bennett said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

The Tories set up the Office of Religious Freedom in 2013 and appointed Bennett, a former public servant and Christian theologian, as its first ambassador.

His three-year team was supposed to end last month, but the Liberals extended it until the end of March to coincide with the expiration of the office’s mandate and annual $5 million in funding.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has been sending signals, however, that neither will be renewed in their current form.

He told the Senate he was considering whether the office was the best way to protect religious freedoms.

“Is that the best approach? As you know, according to international convention, rights are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent and that is the approach we want to develop,” he said in February.

While Bennett is joining Cardus in an unpaid capacity immediately, the Foreign Affairs Department said it will not affect his work with them.