1.2 Plenary Panel “Religion and Human Rights in Canada: Judaism, Christianity and Islam”

Michael Stroh, Lois Wilson, Abdulaziz Sachedina

In recent years, debates around accommodation, inclusion, and human rights have highlighted both challenges and the contributions presented by religious communities in Canadian society. Addressing such challenges and contributions, this panel will discuss what is at stake in questions of justice and religious freedom for faith traditions in Canada. How do Judaism, Christianity, and Islam consider questions of rights and equity in a society that is religiously plural and in a civic space that is largely secular? What are religious communities doing to negotiate the perils and promises of being Canadian while remaining faithful?

2.9 Plenary Panel “Social Justice and Human Rights: Reflections in Conclusion”

Melissa Williams, Lois Wilson, Nicholas Wolterstorff

Melissa Williams reflected on the fact that many of the conference sessions had highlighted the importance of language in grappling with human rights and social justice. She emphasized the need for attentiveness to languages that we use around the issues that we consider to be morally urgent, while paying particular attention to their diversity and their limitations. Recalling Wittgenstein’s insight on success in language games as the ability to “know how to go on,” she registered the difficulties of being able to go on in the current scenario because so many core elements of the historically important vocabularies in addressing rights and justice have been co-opted and distorted by those whose projects are inimical to justice.