I was delighted to see the Canadian Pagan Declaration on Intolerance, especially given the current climate of fascism, bigotry, hate-mongering, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and ablism.

Over at Spiral Nature, Jade Pichette explains how the Declaration came about:

The Canadian Pagan Declaration on Intolerance came about in the wake of the US election when a number of Pagan, Heathen, and witchcraft leaders talked about what we were seeing in our communities, and the explicit rise of hate speech and graffiti against marginalized religious communities. Principally, these attacks honed in on Jewish communities,  Muslim communities, and in one case a Black-led church. This isn’t to say that anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism, or Islamophobia are new in Canadian society — they are definitely not — however, this new acceleration was of concern.

She then goes on to explain how it was received by the Pagan community in Canada:

When I first wrote the CDPI, with the aid and guidance of a dozen community leaders, clergy, and activists, I was concerned about whether Pagans and Heathens would connect and support the Declaration, or whether it would just wind up being the people I was already connected to mostly in Southern Ontario and Montreal. Instead the CDPI caught on with organizations across Canada from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. We had organizations signing on from sizable national or provincial organizations, to small private covens. The Declaration caught on with Druids, eclectic Pagans, polytheist witches, Wiccans, and yes even Heathens, just to name a few. More than 80 organizations from the seven most populous provinces, and more than 500 individuals signed the CDPI within the first month after launch, which showed that intolerance was certainly an issue that many of us from coast to coast were concerned about.

I was privileged to meet Jade at a Pagan camp in Canada that I attended in the summer, and I am also trying to promote discussion of racism and other forms of bigotry in the Pagan community, so I was delighted when Jade produced the Declaration.

Signing these kind of declarations is not a meaningless gesture.  It commits us publicly to take action, to raise awareness, to resist bigotry, and to build links with other communities, especially those that are impacted by bigotry, such as the Muslim, Black, and indigenous communities. I gladly signed this declaration, and I hope you will too.