HANNAFORD： Pastor of Canada’s largest church raises alarm over Bill C-9
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Hate speech
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Summary
Bill C-9 sits at second reading in the Senate, and soon, unless something unexpected happens, it will soon be in the Governor General's hands for royal assent and will change how faith communities express their beliefs. Many Christians are worried that Bill C9 could limit how they express their faith, teach, or even discuss the Bible in a group setting. With me today is Pastor Kent Priebe, who recently became lead pastor at Centre Street Church in Calgary, Canada.
Transcript
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Good evening, Western Standard viewers, and welcome to Hannaford, the weekly politics show
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of the Western Standard. It is Thursday, April the 30th. Bill C-9 sits today at second reading
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in the Senate. This is the one that many people are anxious about because it means it can be
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illegal to quote the Bible in some contexts. So, unless something unexpected happens, it will soon
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be in the Governor-General's hands for royal assent and will change how faith communities
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express their beliefs. Not to put too fine a point on it, many Christians are worried that Bill C9
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could limit how they express their faith, teach, or even discuss the scriptures in a group setting.
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With me today is Pastor Kent Priebe, who recently became lead pastor
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at Calgary's Center Street Church. Welcome Pastor Kent.
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Thank you, Nigel. Pleasure to be here with you and your team here today.
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Good to have you with us, Kent. Kent, my researchers tell me that Centre Street is
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You know, I haven't done my own extensive research, but we are referred to as the largest,
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Well, I wanted to give you the opportunity to brag, but it does strike me that
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You are in the situation, because of the vagueness of how Bill C-9 is worded,
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it seems like you are among those who stand potentially to be impacted,
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maybe even targeted through malicious use of this legislation by bad faith actors.
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As a church, we and other pastors we've been talking with over the months,
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we have encouraged our congregation to voice their concerns and their opinions to their members of
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parliament and right now to senators and we are concerned that that we could be impacted as a
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church in our teaching and our worship services in bible studies and workshops and seminars because
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of the way that this bill can be interpreted uh in terms of hate speech yeah so we're very
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concerned by it yes so uh since the charter of rights and freedoms was proclaimed more than 40
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years ago canada's elected governments and the courts have been pushing christian christianity
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out of the public square last year they were even talking about cancelling tax deductions for
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people who give money to the to religious organizations not just the churches but
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any religious organization i should add now people are saying that bill c9 is more of the same
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how do you answer people who come to you pastorally and say what's going on what is this
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actually going to mean for the church yeah we you know it it uh it's hard not to draw
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a line through things that have been happening the last number of years
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And we express that we are concerned about this.
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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.
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and then according to bill c9 from what i understand there can be allegations and then
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charges laid in terms of that being considered hate speech when our intent is not to be hateful
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our intent is not to stir up hate um however people might be offended by what they hear and
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at times i sit in church and i am offended because there's some correction from scripture
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right into my life and maybe over offended is a bit overstated but i'm convicted and um
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and instructed according to scripture and so yeah i i think we don't know exactly how
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the impact this will have but it is concerning that there is potential for
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for someone to say that scripture read or that sermon or that bible study or that that instruction
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And a concern of ours is the removal of what has been seen as a protection
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for religious communities and faith communities in terms of a good faith defense.
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Well, the language in the bill, I mean, we're having this conversation,
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having reviewed about the draft language that is before Parliament now,
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And it does seem vague where certainty actually would be very helpful, the definition of hatred itself.
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I think we're aware of the efforts made by MP Andrew Lawson to bring clarity to that.
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But it's still kind of one of those things that it's who's offended and how they see it.
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So there's certainly something to be concerned about there.
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and if i could just add a bit more yes to that um you know it it uh i think there was a member
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of parliament that actually quoted scriptures from the bible and said that these are hateful
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yes and so when you do have a member of parliament publicly stating that this these texts are seen
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as hateful and then you see the government removing the good faith defense it's hard not
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to come it's not hard to see potentially where this could be going in that um you know it's a
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high probability that someone teaching scripture um you know it could be interpreted as hateful
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and that could be there it's hard not to draw a line and see where this is heading i'm not saying
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it is heading there but you know sometimes you think of worst-case
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scenario and we could end up there and we're concerned about that we have
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become used in the last two and a half hundred years to a condition where the
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church has moral authority even among people who are not necessarily followers
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of the church you know they're not Christians or Muslims or they're not
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news or whatever they're just but the the um the church itself has been recognized as authorized to
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say well this is right and this is wrong don't don't do that do do this um i get a sense that
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that authority has slipped away in the last probably since the the charter of rights was
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proclaimed 40 years ago. That puts us back, does it not, to more or less where the Christian church
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was shortly after Christ rose from the dead. It was not recognized as an authority by the
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Roman Empire for about 300 years. In the meantime, there were no tax deductions
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you know for for being a christian in the year ad 250 so um my my question to you really is okay
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this is probably coming our way hope not we'll do our best we won't be silly but um
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somebody is going to be the point of the spear on this what happened from the point of view of the
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church does not the church go on without its buildings and his tax deductions what yeah let's
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go into the science fiction of that for a moment um you know it is uh you know you think of what
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could happen and um and um i guess in answer to that the church will you know the church will
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continue the church is not a man-made institution it's not a human institution
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i and so many others believe that it is god's institution it's what he has formed it's what he
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jesus christ began here on earth and um you know almost two thousand and more years ago and um so
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the church has always seen challenges and currently around the world there's incredible
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challenges that churches are experiencing around the world i met a pastor from algeria and um
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essentially christian churches there were just shut down in a matter of weeks
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and uh the church is still functioning though in homes and in secret places and um
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and so i'm not i'm not saying that will happen here in canada um however you look at what's
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happening around the world and you think you know what in 20 or 30 years or 40 years
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it possibly would be but i i could the church will continue um in its various forms and expressions
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we've seen that throughout history thousands of years and um so i'm not there is hope in that in
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that context and i i do believe that the church um is having a positive influential uh impact
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here in canada here in calgary and around the world well when you say a positive impact for
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some people that gets very very personal yeah you have a number of i want to come back to the main
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subject just so people understand what the center street church and others like it is just not a
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place where people come on sundays and then go home again what else goes on in that building
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that is a public benefit oh wow um you know what i i just in preparation i just thought i i don't
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know all that goes on so i thought i'd make some some notes about what does go on not only at
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center street church but churches across canada and here in calgary but in particular at center
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street we have over 100 people to gather every monday night and they move out to 10 different
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locations across calgary and they give out food every monday about 300 lunches are handed out to
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people bibles are given out to people and people are asked can i pray for you and rarely rarely
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does the person being asked to say no what we're finding is people want to be prayed for they need
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help they're struggling to make life work these days they've got cares and concerns and someone
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offering to pray for them is is uh get some hope you know um we have we have so many things for
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children um we have just you know a rough estimate here over 2000 2300 uh activities for kids
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throughout the summer um individual children what sort of activities oh camps day camps sports camps
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um bible bible camps um but i know in the neighborhood you're sort of known as the
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church that brings in the bouncy castle oh yeah i mean yeah like that's incredible how
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many food hampers do you give out yeah i was getting there um we have a every week
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every month we give out 350 food hampers um well actually that now it's 560 every month
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food ambers that's 560 households you know not individuals we have we help people who need pay
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for their rent or the utility bills we have about 600 people that access clothing there's free
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clothing each month and i was i'm astounded by this but this is a true statistic from january
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until april we have served 20 000 meals to people that either need a place to belong
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they may have food at home but they need a place to belong or they they need food and and um that's
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just you know i would there's just there's more i could say but we want to have an impact this is
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actually this is actually a christian tradition from day one is it not absolutely absolutely yeah
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yeah you read in uh in the bible and in acts might be familiar to some of your viewers listeners
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that's what christians did they they shared food they shared homes they shared property
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they existed for the benefit of others the good of the community well so a cynic might say
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that oh yeah right from the beginning these people have had a wonderful public relations
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exercise they get people on side by giving out food and you know whatever the romans would have
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wanted um but it's not that is it no like where does it come from you know what it it it uh it
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comes from a genuine gratitude and gratefulness from what we have received and experiencing from
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god that's the core of it a true christian will know what they've experienced from god
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not an easy life not a perfect life absolutely not a life free from suffering but they received
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goodness hope peace from God and then they act on that in the world not just verbally talk about it
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but act on it and that is that's the core of of being a Christian um so it is it's distressing
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in in the building who would feel the effect yeah and that that's where you you kind of think does
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the government or people you know see the benefit to the benefit of churches the impact that will
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have in the community and society and there's there's a um there's i looked at this a number
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of years ago there's something called the halo effect yes that that if a it's a it's a way to
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try and ascertain if if a local church did not exist what would be what would be the uh the
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negative impact to the community in terms of dollars is this a card study that you're speaking
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it it is similar to card is a little bit different right okay but just saying you know what there
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what there is a place for faith there's a place for faith in society and i i i feel like
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our society at large and our government is is almost addressing that is there a place for
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faith and religion in society or not and it's hard not to think that bill c9 is moving towards saying
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uh there there will be a limited or controlled expression of faith in society and i i again
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that's concerning. It's something that we've noticed before. There was a philosopher by the
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name of Charles Taylor, a few years ago, wrote a book, and he talked about a secular age.
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Is this what we're talking about, the secular age,
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where people don't merely reject God? They don't even have a concept of God.
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you know i have not read as others like yourself i understand a lot more what that what that means
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right a secular age um i would say there are there are people that are and throughout history have
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been antagonistic towards christians hostile even in fact perhaps yes um and i that's always been
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the case at the same time i do see and believe that there are a vast majority of others others
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that are interested in the christian faith that are interested in god and interested in jesus christ
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and so i i think they'll always be the two uh the two and um well i bring it up because if our
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neighbors in the broader sense are you know other people aren't so much lapsed
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Christians but adherence to a secular creed that sees nothing remarkable in
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churches being burned down I mean okay other things get burned down what's the
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big deal you know how does the church need to adapt to a surrounding culture
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adapt and not not adapt in belief or but adapt in expression adapt in practice perhaps but there's
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some things that always stay the same and I but in another sense I think we continue on the Bible
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has not changed what Jesus came to to instruct us to you know to live and how to a mission that we
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have doesn't change and so in some sense we continue on as we have been and that is to to
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do good to love your neighbor as yourself to love your enemies to you
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know to be generous to be pursuing peace to be pursuing unity and and that that
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has been and then so much more could be said about that about that is how
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Christians operate that's what we are that's what Jesus did and that's what
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we are that we follow him and so that's what we do so in some cases we stay the
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course and um and what we're finding is that there are there there are people that are genuinely
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interested in scripture in the bible they um i talked to a gentleman the other day
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from uh from a sikh background in pakistan to a muslim background in france and here and uh
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he wants to be baptized and uh so we find people coming from a atheist background a
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another faith background and that's just what we're seeing i i'm not saying that is for everyone
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certainly but that's what we are seeing on a on a continual regular basis and i'm hearing as well
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from pastors across canada churches are growing i wanted to ask you about that you know that's
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what i'm hearing i'm hearing the same thing i see articles of young people are coming back to church
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yeah do you see it at the center street we are yeah we are um i um what's the attraction yeah
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i mean i mean it used to be that it wasn't going to church it's not an attraction now they're
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coming back what has changed in society that is making a young man of 21 or 22 say you know what
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I'm going to go in here while the people have got to say.
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Yeah, I can just tell you what we're experiencing.
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There's a group of grade 10 students who regularly, at their own initiative,
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And in the past six months, they've handed out 150 Bibles to people.
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and uh they have not encountered someone who is rude or offended by that and um and so they're
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living out there in an incredible personal way right open way appropriate way their faith i
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talked with another gentleman about three months ago 22 years old the university of calgary uh
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quickly his story he did not believe in jesus christ was not a christian at all was curious
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about spirituality and on his tick tock feed kept on coming up things about jesus and in fact he he
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hit the button that says less of these kinds of messages but it just kept coming it kept coming
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and he started being interested in who jesus christ was uh he found his parents were aware
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of that he found his way up to a soccer tournament in edmonton and they stayed at a hotel and there's
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a gideon bible a bible in the hotel room and his mom says well you should take that bible and uh
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and he said no i can't steal a bible from the hotel and his mom said well that's a bible for you
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you know anyways long story short he ended up knowing jesus giving his life to follow jesus
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his parents are following jesus and a 22 year old young man and uh that's what we're seeing the this
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year 2025 um we've seen an increase and this is across the states in canada an increase in men
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attending 43 of men say that they attend church interesting statistics hopeful statistics a good
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note on which to end okay so kent i really appreciate you coming in there's a wonderful
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ministry that you have there at center street church and uh give you all encouragement but
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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?
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Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, the church is not a human made by humans.
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The church is something that God has instituted, and it will continue.