Western Standard - May 03, 2026


HANNAFORD： Pastor of Canada’s largest church raises alarm over Bill C-9


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Length

24 minutes

Words per minute

142.54475

Word count

3,520

Sentence count

61


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Good evening, Western Standard viewers, and welcome to Hannaford, the weekly politics show
00:00:21.000 of the Western Standard. It is Thursday, April the 30th. Bill C-9 sits today at second reading
00:00:30.280 in the Senate. This is the one that many people are anxious about because it means it can be
00:00:35.800 illegal to quote the Bible in some contexts. So, unless something unexpected happens, it will soon
00:00:42.920 be in the Governor-General's hands for royal assent and will change how faith communities
00:00:48.600 express their beliefs. Not to put too fine a point on it, many Christians are worried that Bill C9
00:00:56.680 could limit how they express their faith, teach, or even discuss the scriptures in a group setting.
00:01:03.240 With me today is Pastor Kent Priebe, who recently became lead pastor
00:01:07.720 at Calgary's Center Street Church. Welcome Pastor Kent.
00:01:12.520 Thank you, Nigel. Pleasure to be here with you and your team here today.
00:01:16.120 Good to have you with us, Kent. Kent, my researchers tell me that Centre Street is
00:01:24.120 the largest church in Canada. Is that right?
00:01:26.840 You know, I haven't done my own extensive research, but we are referred to as the largest,
00:01:33.640 if not one of the largest churches in Canada.
00:01:35.560 Well, I wanted to give you the opportunity to brag, but it does strike me that
00:01:46.120 You are in the situation, because of the vagueness of how Bill C-9 is worded,
00:01:52.560 it seems like you are among those who stand potentially to be impacted,
00:01:58.580 maybe even targeted through malicious use of this legislation by bad faith actors.
00:02:04.580 Do you have any concerns in that area?
00:02:06.820 Yeah, absolutely.
00:02:08.800 As a church, we and other pastors we've been talking with over the months,
00:02:13.480 we have been concerned about this bill.
00:02:16.120 we have encouraged our congregation to voice their concerns and their opinions to their members of
00:02:21.640 parliament and right now to senators and we are concerned that that we could be impacted as a
00:02:30.040 church in our teaching and our worship services in bible studies and workshops and seminars because
00:02:36.520 of the way that this bill can be interpreted uh in terms of hate speech yeah so we're very
00:02:43.880 concerned by it yes so uh since the charter of rights and freedoms was proclaimed more than 40
00:02:51.320 years ago canada's elected governments and the courts have been pushing christian christianity
00:02:58.040 out of the public square last year they were even talking about cancelling tax deductions for
00:03:05.640 people who give money to the to religious organizations not just the churches but
00:03:11.000 any religious organization i should add now people are saying that bill c9 is more of the same
00:03:21.000 how do you answer people who come to you pastorally and say what's going on what is this
00:03:28.200 actually going to mean for the church yeah we you know it it uh it's hard not to draw
00:03:35.720 a line through things that have been happening the last number of years
00:03:38.520 concerning churches and Christianity
00:03:42.080 to feel like, you know,
00:03:46.820 religion or faith is being marginalized.
00:03:50.880 When people have talked to us
00:03:52.480 about their concern of Bill C-9,
00:03:54.120 and every week,
00:03:55.600 I can confidently say every week,
00:03:57.300 we have someone from our congregation saying,
00:04:00.060 what are we doing about this?
00:04:01.760 What do we feel about this?
00:04:02.800 What's the potential impact about this on us?
00:04:05.160 And we express that we are concerned about this.
00:04:08.520 In terms of our freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and in particular, that text read from scripture or doctrine that's taught can be interpreted as hate speech.
00:04:26.240 and then according to bill c9 from what i understand there can be allegations and then
00:04:31.680 charges laid in terms of that being considered hate speech when our intent is not to be hateful
00:04:38.740 our intent is not to stir up hate um however people might be offended by what they hear and
00:04:45.680 at times i sit in church and i am offended because there's some correction from scripture
00:04:51.360 right into my life and maybe over offended is a bit overstated but i'm convicted and um
00:04:58.640 and instructed according to scripture and so yeah i i think we don't know exactly how
00:05:04.560 the impact this will have but it is concerning that there is potential for
00:05:10.640 for someone to say that scripture read or that sermon or that bible study or that that instruction
00:05:17.120 I felt was hateful towards me.
00:05:22.580 And then where does it go from there?
00:05:25.060 And a concern of ours is the removal of what has been seen as a protection
00:05:30.140 for religious communities and faith communities in terms of a good faith defense.
00:05:37.680 Well, the language in the bill, I mean, we're having this conversation,
00:05:41.160 having reviewed about the draft language that is before Parliament now,
00:05:45.360 And it does seem vague where certainty actually would be very helpful, the definition of hatred itself.
00:05:52.360 I think we're aware of the efforts made by MP Andrew Lawson to bring clarity to that.
00:06:00.360 But it's still kind of one of those things that it's who's offended and how they see it.
00:06:08.360 So there's certainly something to be concerned about there.
00:06:14.360 and if i could just add a bit more yes to that um you know it it uh i think there was a member
00:06:24.820 of parliament that actually quoted scriptures from the bible and said that these are hateful
00:06:33.100 yes and so when you do have a member of parliament publicly stating that this these texts are seen
00:06:41.780 as hateful and then you see the government removing the good faith defense it's hard not
00:06:50.080 to come it's not hard to see potentially where this could be going in that um you know it's a
00:06:58.720 high probability that someone teaching scripture um you know it could be interpreted as hateful
00:07:06.080 and that could be there it's hard not to draw a line and see where this is heading i'm not saying
00:07:11.020 it is heading there but you know sometimes you think of worst-case
00:07:14.560 scenario and we could end up there and we're concerned about that we have
00:07:20.680 become used in the last two and a half hundred years to a condition where the
00:07:28.400 church has moral authority even among people who are not necessarily followers
00:07:35.140 of the church you know they're not Christians or Muslims or they're not
00:07:39.340 news or whatever they're just but the the um the church itself has been recognized as authorized to
00:07:47.420 say well this is right and this is wrong don't don't do that do do this um i get a sense that
00:07:54.540 that authority has slipped away in the last probably since the the charter of rights was
00:08:01.100 proclaimed 40 years ago. That puts us back, does it not, to more or less where the Christian church
00:08:11.100 was shortly after Christ rose from the dead. It was not recognized as an authority by the
00:08:20.540 Roman Empire for about 300 years. In the meantime, there were no tax deductions
00:08:27.260 you know for for being a christian in the year ad 250 so um my my question to you really is okay
00:08:36.860 this is probably coming our way hope not we'll do our best we won't be silly but um
00:08:44.140 somebody is going to be the point of the spear on this what happened from the point of view of the
00:08:52.460 church does not the church go on without its buildings and his tax deductions what yeah let's
00:09:00.140 go into the science fiction of that for a moment um you know it is uh you know you think of what
00:09:09.340 could happen and um and um i guess in answer to that the church will you know the church will
00:09:16.620 continue the church is not a man-made institution it's not a human institution
00:09:24.300 i and so many others believe that it is god's institution it's what he has formed it's what he
00:09:31.020 jesus christ began here on earth and um you know almost two thousand and more years ago and um so
00:09:41.180 the church has always seen challenges and currently around the world there's incredible
00:09:45.260 challenges that churches are experiencing around the world i met a pastor from algeria and um
00:09:54.940 essentially christian churches there were just shut down in a matter of weeks
00:09:59.420 and uh the church is still functioning though in homes and in secret places and um
00:10:06.620 and so i'm not i'm not saying that will happen here in canada um however you look at what's
00:10:13.260 happening around the world and you think you know what in 20 or 30 years or 40 years
00:10:17.660 it possibly would be but i i could the church will continue um in its various forms and expressions
00:10:26.140 we've seen that throughout history thousands of years and um so i'm not there is hope in that in
00:10:32.540 that context and i i do believe that the church um is having a positive influential uh impact
00:10:41.900 here in canada here in calgary and around the world well when you say a positive impact for
00:10:47.500 some people that gets very very personal yeah you have a number of i want to come back to the main
00:10:53.020 subject just so people understand what the center street church and others like it is just not a
00:10:58.860 place where people come on sundays and then go home again what else goes on in that building
00:11:04.220 that is a public benefit oh wow um you know what i i just in preparation i just thought i i don't
00:11:10.940 know all that goes on so i thought i'd make some some notes about what does go on not only at
00:11:15.500 center street church but churches across canada and here in calgary but in particular at center
00:11:21.020 street we have over 100 people to gather every monday night and they move out to 10 different
00:11:28.460 locations across calgary and they give out food every monday about 300 lunches are handed out to
00:11:37.980 people bibles are given out to people and people are asked can i pray for you and rarely rarely
00:11:47.900 does the person being asked to say no what we're finding is people want to be prayed for they need
00:11:54.460 help they're struggling to make life work these days they've got cares and concerns and someone
00:12:00.620 offering to pray for them is is uh get some hope you know um we have we have so many things for
00:12:07.980 children um we have just you know a rough estimate here over 2000 2300 uh activities for kids
00:12:17.660 throughout the summer um individual children what sort of activities oh camps day camps sports camps
00:12:24.460 um bible bible camps um but i know in the neighborhood you're sort of known as the
00:12:31.020 church that brings in the bouncy castle oh yeah i mean yeah like that's incredible how
00:12:36.380 many food hampers do you give out yeah i was getting there um we have a every week
00:12:43.580 every month we give out 350 food hampers um well actually that now it's 560 every month
00:12:53.100 food ambers that's 560 households you know not individuals we have we help people who need pay
00:13:00.540 for their rent or the utility bills we have about 600 people that access clothing there's free
00:13:07.900 clothing each month and i was i'm astounded by this but this is a true statistic from january
00:13:15.280 until april we have served 20 000 meals to people that either need a place to belong
00:13:23.440 they may have food at home but they need a place to belong or they they need food and and um that's
00:13:30.880 just you know i would there's just there's more i could say but we want to have an impact this is
00:13:35.760 actually this is actually a christian tradition from day one is it not absolutely absolutely yeah
00:13:41.600 yeah you read in uh in the bible and in acts might be familiar to some of your viewers listeners
00:13:47.360 that's what christians did they they shared food they shared homes they shared property
00:13:52.400 they existed for the benefit of others the good of the community well so a cynic might say
00:13:57.760 that oh yeah right from the beginning these people have had a wonderful public relations
00:14:02.880 exercise they get people on side by giving out food and you know whatever the romans would have
00:14:08.320 wanted um but it's not that is it no like where does it come from you know what it it it uh it
00:14:16.720 comes from a genuine gratitude and gratefulness from what we have received and experiencing from
00:14:25.040 god that's the core of it a true christian will know what they've experienced from god
00:14:31.280 not an easy life not a perfect life absolutely not a life free from suffering but they received
00:14:38.360 goodness hope peace from God and then they act on that in the world not just verbally talk about it
00:14:45.520 but act on it and that is that's the core of of being a Christian um so it is it's distressing
00:14:54.140 to think that what the Bible says
00:14:59.160 could be misinterpreted
00:15:00.460 or misrepresented as hateful.
00:15:03.420 I agree some might find it
00:15:05.860 personally challenging.
00:15:07.660 Personally challenging.
00:15:08.340 That's a great way.
00:15:09.400 But it's not hateful.
00:15:10.860 Absolutely not hateful.
00:15:13.260 Yeah.
00:15:13.880 Yeah.
00:15:14.560 Well, that's the,
00:15:17.920 that is the thing about this.
00:15:19.540 If that church community
00:15:21.920 up there on 40th Avenue
00:15:24.660 disappeared.
00:15:27.460 And if others like it,
00:15:29.340 people living here
00:15:30.740 would notice the difference.
00:15:33.100 Absolutely.
00:15:33.820 So this legislation,
00:15:36.460 it has sort of
00:15:38.100 a chilling effect
00:15:40.040 on speech and preaching.
00:15:42.460 And if you have
00:15:43.920 an imagination, you can see how
00:15:45.780 things go seriously wrong.
00:15:47.900 If things went seriously wrong,
00:15:50.120 it wouldn't just be people
00:15:51.900 in in the building who would feel the effect yeah and that that's where you you kind of think does
00:15:58.280 the government or people you know see the benefit to the benefit of churches the impact that will
00:16:05.680 have in the community and society and there's there's a um there's i looked at this a number
00:16:11.460 of years ago there's something called the halo effect yes that that if a it's a it's a way to
00:16:18.360 try and ascertain if if a local church did not exist what would be what would be the uh the
00:16:26.120 negative impact to the community in terms of dollars is this a card study that you're speaking
00:16:32.000 it it is similar to card is a little bit different right okay but just saying you know what there
00:16:36.720 what there is a place for faith there's a place for faith in society and i i i feel like
00:16:44.740 our society at large and our government is is almost addressing that is there a place for
00:16:52.000 faith and religion in society or not and it's hard not to think that bill c9 is moving towards saying
00:16:59.920 uh there there will be a limited or controlled expression of faith in society and i i again
00:17:08.380 that's concerning. It's something that we've noticed before. There was a philosopher by the
00:17:16.760 name of Charles Taylor, a few years ago, wrote a book, and he talked about a secular age.
00:17:25.600 Is this what we're talking about, the secular age,
00:17:28.820 where people don't merely reject God? They don't even have a concept of God.
00:17:32.940 you know i have not read as others like yourself i understand a lot more what that what that means
00:17:42.660 right a secular age um i would say there are there are people that are and throughout history have
00:17:51.460 been antagonistic towards christians hostile even in fact perhaps yes um and i that's always been
00:18:00.260 the case at the same time i do see and believe that there are a vast majority of others others
00:18:08.980 that are interested in the christian faith that are interested in god and interested in jesus christ
00:18:15.700 and so i i think they'll always be the two uh the two and um well i bring it up because if our
00:18:23.940 neighbors in the broader sense are you know other people aren't so much lapsed
00:18:30.660 Christians but adherence to a secular creed that sees nothing remarkable in
00:18:38.940 churches being burned down I mean okay other things get burned down what's the
00:18:43.680 big deal you know how does the church need to adapt to a surrounding culture
00:18:49.260 that doesn't share
00:18:52.040 even basic assumptions
00:18:53.560 about God and man.
00:18:55.840 Yeah.
00:18:58.020 Do we adapt, in fact,
00:18:59.780 or do we just carry on?
00:19:02.760 That's a good question.
00:19:05.200 I mean, churches
00:19:06.360 have adapted in the past
00:19:08.300 to what, you know,
00:19:10.180 the society, whether it's secular
00:19:11.680 or other faiths,
00:19:14.440 you know, the churches has adapted
00:19:16.020 and morphed and will
00:19:18.180 adapt and not not adapt in belief or but adapt in expression adapt in practice perhaps but there's
00:19:26.520 some things that always stay the same and I but in another sense I think we continue on the Bible
00:19:34.080 has not changed what Jesus came to to instruct us to you know to live and how to a mission that we
00:19:40.240 have doesn't change and so in some sense we continue on as we have been and that is to to
00:19:46.240 do good to love your neighbor as yourself to love your enemies to you
00:19:53.320 know to be generous to be pursuing peace to be pursuing unity and and that that
00:20:02.180 has been and then so much more could be said about that about that is how
00:20:05.080 Christians operate that's what we are that's what Jesus did and that's what
00:20:09.520 we are that we follow him and so that's what we do so in some cases we stay the
00:20:15.460 course and um and what we're finding is that there are there there are people that are genuinely
00:20:22.900 interested in scripture in the bible they um i talked to a gentleman the other day
00:20:30.900 from uh from a sikh background in pakistan to a muslim background in france and here and uh
00:20:39.220 he wants to be baptized and uh so we find people coming from a atheist background a
00:20:48.660 another faith background and that's just what we're seeing i i'm not saying that is for everyone
00:20:55.300 certainly but that's what we are seeing on a on a continual regular basis and i'm hearing as well
00:21:01.940 from pastors across canada churches are growing i wanted to ask you about that you know that's
00:21:08.340 what i'm hearing i'm hearing the same thing i see articles of young people are coming back to church
00:21:13.140 yeah do you see it at the center street we are yeah we are um i um what's the attraction yeah
00:21:22.820 i mean i mean it used to be that it wasn't going to church it's not an attraction now they're
00:21:28.020 coming back what has changed in society that is making a young man of 21 or 22 say you know what
00:21:33.700 I'm going to go in here while the people have got to say.
00:21:36.740 Yeah, I can just tell you what we're experiencing.
00:21:42.560 There's a group of grade 10 students who regularly, at their own initiative,
00:21:50.460 go out to malls and parks and hand out Bibles.
00:21:54.800 And in the past six months, they've handed out 150 Bibles to people.
00:21:58.320 and uh they have not encountered someone who is rude or offended by that and um and so they're
00:22:07.120 living out there in an incredible personal way right open way appropriate way their faith i
00:22:13.660 talked with another gentleman about three months ago 22 years old the university of calgary uh
00:22:19.000 quickly his story he did not believe in jesus christ was not a christian at all was curious
00:22:25.340 about spirituality and on his tick tock feed kept on coming up things about jesus and in fact he he
00:22:32.460 hit the button that says less of these kinds of messages but it just kept coming it kept coming
00:22:37.820 and he started being interested in who jesus christ was uh he found his parents were aware
00:22:43.020 of that he found his way up to a soccer tournament in edmonton and they stayed at a hotel and there's
00:22:47.340 a gideon bible a bible in the hotel room and his mom says well you should take that bible and uh
00:22:53.260 and he said no i can't steal a bible from the hotel and his mom said well that's a bible for you
00:22:57.820 you know anyways long story short he ended up knowing jesus giving his life to follow jesus
00:23:04.700 his parents are following jesus and a 22 year old young man and uh that's what we're seeing the this
00:23:11.420 year 2025 um we've seen an increase and this is across the states in canada an increase in men
00:23:20.380 attending 43 of men say that they attend church interesting statistics hopeful statistics a good
00:23:29.580 note on which to end okay so kent i really appreciate you coming in there's a wonderful
00:23:35.340 ministry that you have there at center street church and uh give you all encouragement but
00:23:41.660 I'm going to give you the last word, and the last word would be, how would you, with or without a building, does the church go on?
00:23:53.280 Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, the church is not a human made by humans.
00:23:57.960 The church is something that God has instituted, and it will continue.
00:24:01.660 Thank you, Nigel. Thank you.
00:24:04.760 For the Western Standard, I'm Nigel Haniford.
00:24:11.660 Thank you.