{"id":6199,"date":"2012-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2012\/01\/01\/promises-kept\/"},"modified":"2012-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"promises-kept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2012\/01\/01\/promises-kept\/","title":{"rendered":"Promises Kept"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=&quot;cap&quot;>E<\/span>arly in 2011 Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a reelected Conservative government would create an Office of Religious Freedom to ensure that defending persecuted religious minorities is a priority of Canada&#039;s foreign policy.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to a packed room and an enthusiastic and diverse crowd, Prime Minister Harper praised the courage of those Canadians who have fled religious persecution and come to Canada&mdash;many of them having experienced violence and torture just for professing their faith openly. Harper said that Canadians are fortunate to live in a society in which freedom of conscience does not carry the threat of persecution or violence. But he added that &quot;while we are thankful to live in a country that spares us such tests, we must not let our comfort be an excuse to shirk our commitment to the cause of freedom. That is why I am pleased to announce that a reelected Conservative government will create a special Office of Religious Freedom.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Harper explained that the new Office of Religious Freedom, located within the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, will monitor religious freedom around the world, promote religious freedom as a key objective of Canadian foreign policy, and advance policies and programs that support religious freedom around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Calling him a champion of freedom and an inspirational figure, the prime minister told the crowd that Pakistan&#039;s slain minister of minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, had &quot;asked us in Canada to shine a light on the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan and around the world.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister said that the new Office of Religious Freedom will do just that: &quot;It will call attention to the religiously persecuted and condemn their persecutors. It will signal to religious minorities everywhere that they have a friend in Canada.&quot;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early in 2011 Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a reelected Conservative government would create an Office of Religious Freedom to ensure that defending persecuted religious minorities is a priority of Canada&#039;s foreign policy. Speaking to a packed room and an enthusiastic and diverse crowd, Prime Minister Harper praised the courage of those Canadians who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-6199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-january-february-2012","tag-january-february-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}