Canada’s Proposed Sunday Law
By L. A. S.
THE enactment of a general Sunday law for Canada seems now to be among the probabilities of the immediate future. The decision having been rendered that the enactment of such legislation was beyond the authority of the provincial legislatures, the Lord’s Day Alliance has succeeded in bringing a Sunday bill before the Dominion Parliament, which the Ottawa Journal describes as “a pretty whole-souled measure of Sunday observance.” “It proposes,” says the Journal, “to prevent all work and play on Sunday. Railway trains, not specifically running for a necessary purpose, are to be stopped; shops are to be closed; no man is to be permitted to carry on his ordinary avocation except by way of ministration to soul or body; there are to be no Sunday ‘excursions’ of any sort, nor any ‘performance’ for which admission fee is charged; there is to be no target practise. Work, except for the pure benefit of humanity, and play in any public place, are to be practically forbidden.” Two statements, among others made by the Journal regarding this bill, are especially worthy of note. One is the statement that Rome has joined hands with the Lord’s Day Alliance over this measure:— The Alliance, which is headquartered in Toronto, has been accorded not an unexpected, but an entirely gratifying support by Archbishop Bruchesi and other members of the Catholic clergy in Canada. Do Protestant clergymen feel no misgivings in joining hands with Rome on a point of religious doctrine, and one which Rome sets forth as being vitally related to the question of her spiritual supremacy? A measure which leads Protestants to unite with Rome ought for that reason alone to be viewed by them with suspicion. Ah! Rome is entirely willing that misguided Protestants shall exalt her institutions and fight her battles. The other statement shows the religious purpose of the proposed law, as follows:— To the embargo on Sunday target practise, the Lord’s Day Alliance proposes to add an amendment to the effect that there shall be no hunting or fishing on Sunday. We can not assume that the value of the general measure would be impaired if this and certain other of the proposed amendments were not approved by Parliament, since the real object of Sunday legislation, in a land having men of many shades of thought, is to preserve to the toiler the chance for rest and recreation rather than to dictate the form which that recreation shall assume. “The real object of Sunday legislation,” as this proposed amendment plainly shows, is not at all to secure “rest and recreation,” but the religious observance of the day and the exaltation of the Sunday sabbath. Hunting, fishing, and many sports and pastimes constitute recreation. The Lord’s Day Alliance wants none of these things allowed on Sunday. It proposes to stop both work and play. The point with the Alliance is the desecration of the day; that is what it wants prohibited. That the law may create a horde of mere loafers on that day, and many an idle brain for the devil’s workshop, it cares not a whit. There must be no work, no play, no recreation; nothing but churchgoing or utter demoralizing idleness. The logic of such a situation will of course suggest a further step designed to secure the attendance of the people at the church services.