Here Is A Message By Alberta Lawyer Extraordinaire , Leighton Grey—

Canadian Values

The Cultural War For Our Nation’s Soul

Leighton B. U. Grey K.C. – June 13, 2025

Canadian PM Mark Carney recently declared at a celebration of Eid al-Adha—the Islamic holiday known as the Festival of Sacrifice—that all Canadians must “come together around the values of Eid”; stating that “these are Muslim values.  These are Canadian values.”

Carney is now the figurehead tasked with reshaping Canada’s identity— and he is doing so by redefining Canadian values through an Islamic lens.  

What Carney failed to mention in his address is that Eid al-Adha is a celebration of total submission to Allah; and that whereas Judaism moved away from animal sacrifice long ago, Islam still marks Eid al-Adha with mass ritual slaughter.  The four-day killing spree marking this year’s Eid al-Adha has just mercilessly concluded.  Like every year, the butchery defining this ritual is carried out by people with no training, no oversight, and no regard for suffering.  The resulting brutality is cheered on with selfies, laughter, and children watching in delight.  

Such barbarism is not limited to Islamic countries, where the blood often flows down crowded city streets.  It is spreading quietly across Europe and North America—in homes, driveways, backyards, parking lots, and even into our public parks.  

Canadians were subjected to public virtue signaling about the ‘joyful’ and ‘blessed’ Eid al-Adha by political leaders like Carney, Pierre Poliviere, and even AB Premier Danielle Smith:

However, these practices do not at all reflect Canadian values.   Nor do honour killings; child marriage; female genital mutilation; forced veiling; polygamy; wife-beating; or persecution of apostates, Christians, Hindus, Jews, and homosexuals—all practices prescribed by Islamic texts and upheld by rigid doctrine.  These are not fringe religious practices; they are embedded in Islamic law and enforced in many Muslim-majority countries world-wide.  Countries that Dr. Jordan Peterson recently described to Piers Morgan as “totalitarian hell-holes”.  Here is a recent list of the lowest ranked nations in terms of individual freedom:

Note that nearly all of these are Muslim nations, and that none of the top ten most free nations are Muslim.  Today, such practices are increasingly tolerated in the West and justified under the guise of religious freedom; but they are fundamentally incompatible with the principles of human rights, dignity, and equality for which Canada once proudly fought—values enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and echoed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  These values did not arise in vacuum.  They come from Jewish and Christian beliefs—the very bedrock of our legal, moral, and cultural traditions.

Yet never once has Carney or any other current Canadian political leader stood up to affirm that.

Just as troubling is that Muslim practices bring with them sharia courts, blasphemy laws, and dhimmitude—a system treating non-Muslims as second class citizens.  Sound far-fetched? Not in Great Britain, from whence Carney just arrived, where all of these cornerstones of Muslim society are already legally entrenched.  In many Islamic societies, speaking the truth, leaving the faith, or simply refusing to submit can cost you your freedom—or even your very life.  

These are not Canadian values, and never have been.  When leaders like Carney reshape our national identity around Islamic values and practices—like those celebrated during Eid al-Adha—it is not inclusion.  It is submission.  It marks the slow dismantling of Western civilization:  its principles, its values, its institutions, and its moral foundation.  

If equating Muslim values with Canadiana were not offensive enough, Carney delivered his Eid address at the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) in Ottawa—an organization with deep, well documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a global jihadist movement committed to reviving the Islamic caliphate and uniting the ever expanding Muslim world under Islamic rule.  The Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy combines the slow infiltration of Western institutions with promotion of violent jihad—seeking to replace secular democracy with Islamic theocracy and sharia law; systems its followers believe superior to all Western models of law, governance, and morality.  The Muslim Brotherhood has inspired offshoots worldwide, including Hamas, and has been a driving force behind both violent resistance to Israel and the global surge in antisemitism.

Yet Carney had no issue delivering his message through MAC, one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s most openly aligned affiliates in Canada—unbothered that the Muslim Brotherhood itself is a designated terrorist organization in many Arab countries.  He seemed equally unfazed by the ongoing audit into MAC’s charitable status for allegedly funneling funds and coordinating activities aligned with Muslim Brotherhood objectives. 

So this is the man declaring that Muslim values are Canadian ones.  If this is what now passes for Canadian values, then perhaps it is time to for fight for the ones we have lost—before it is too late to defend them.  In either case, it is increasingly obvious that Canada is no longer the True North Strong And Free whose people ask God to Keep Our Land.

In his speech, Carney cited the values of community, generosity, and sacrifice as Canadian ones that Muslim’s share.  Oddly enough, he neglected to mention other Muslim values, such as converting, enslaving, or smiting infidels.  Coincidentally, while Carney was delivering these shocking remarks, many of the same jihadist thugs who assaulted Jewish students and community members on and around the UCLA campus, pivoted to attack ICE on the streets of Los Angeles.  

Though some of these protestors were ostensibly waving Mexican flags, many others were clad in Hamas and People for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) gear.  The proliferation of graffiti surrounding the riots included attacks on ICE and “Zionists”.  As writer Daniel Greenfield noted: “the issue is never the issue, the issue is the revolution.”  The real issue is hatred for the West, capitalism, and of course, Trump and his supporters.  In a bizarre—and necessarily temporary—marriage of convenience, the hyper-secular left have joined with radical Islamists to have a go at taking down the United States, seen as the last pillar of Western Civilization.  

Remarkably, and also at about the same time, Sa’ad bin Atef al-Awalki, the freshly anointed leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released a 34 minute video full of explicit threats and calls for bloodshed—inside the United States:

“There are 4.5 million Muslims in America alone.  I am saying to all of them: Revenge! Revenge! Do not consult anyone about killing infidel Americans.  You should have a lot of determination, and the list of your targets should be effective.  Go after the scum of the Earth and its greatest criminals.  This is Trump and his VP.  This is Elon Musk and his advisors, or any supporter in terms of finance, administration, and technology.  These include his Secretary of State and his Secretary of Defense.  Go after their families and all those who have any ties to, or are close to, the politicians of the White House.”

Assaulting Jews, killing infidel Americans, and assassinating members of the Trump administration.   Are these also Canadian values, Mr. Carney?

We can only assume the answer to be rhetorical; that Carney did not mean to celebrate those Muslim values.  Although, based upon what is happening in cities like Toronto, perhaps he is not terribly opposed to assaulting or harassing Jews.

Come to think of it, based upon some of his—and other Canadian politicians’ remarks regarding Trump and his supporters, perhaps Carney is not that concerned about the latter two issues, either.  In fact, every time I look around, it seems like Canada is falling apart at the seams.  Crime, drugs, decay, and disorder are no longer confined to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, parts of Toronto, or a few rougher blocks in Winnipeg or Edmonton.  They have metastasized into hundreds of once-safe communities across the country.  Immigration is at historic highs, but housing is at corresponding lows.  Unemployment is rising and per capita GDP is shrinking. The streets feel meaner, the public discourse more brittle, the sense of shared future increasingly thin and fragile.

Despite this, amid the chaos, Canada’s dominant narrative remains curiously unshaken.  The media, universities, cultural institutions, and political establishment continue to speak as if social progress is inevitable, multiculturalism is a settled virtue, and any dissent from progressive orthodoxy is bigotry or ignorance.  Even as the lived reality for ordinary Canadians grows harsher, the official story of Canada holds fast.  That is what is most worrisome.  Canada is not only a country in evident material decline, but also one unable to name its decline.  A country that no longer remembers how to speak the language of limits, virtue, or order.  

Many younger voters backed Pierre Poilievre last year not only because he promised to fix the economy, but because they hoped—quietly, perhaps foolishly—that he would name what was wrong with Canada.  That he would tell a different story than the Liberals.  But he did not; at least, not fully.  And in failing to do so, he joined a long line of “conservative” leaders who have won occasional elections but lost the deeper, more decisive battle: namely, the struggle for the soul of this nation.  

Poilievre’ s loss in Canada’s 2025 federal election was not merely a matter of strategic mistakes or media bias.  It marked yet another chapter in the half-century pattern of cultural retreat by Canadian conservatives.  While they talk economics, the left seizes culture—and with it, our future.

Like many Canadians, I have watched our country drift into malaise.  Housing is unaffordable, crime is on the rise, and national discourse has grown brittle.  Yet the official narrative exploited so deftly by the Carney Liberals during their election campaign—of inevitable progress, of multicultural harmony, and of moral superiority—remains stubbornly intact.  What is missing is not prosperity alone but meaning, confidence, and cultural clarity.

Conservatives, time and again, have failed to challenge this progressive narrative.  From John Diefenbaker to Stephen Harper, they have governed as economic custodians, rarely touching the cultural assumptions underpinning Canadian society.  Even during Poilievre’s promising rise, he focused upon “freedom from” inflation and government interference, but offered little “freedom for” a coherent Canadian cultural identity.

The pattern is clear.  Conservatives pass tax reforms while the left rewrites the national story though the schools, the media, the bureaucracy and the courts.  Even victories feel oddly defensive and temporary.  The result?  A public square where conservative ideas are tolerated on fiscal matters but banished from moral and cultural debate. 

Poilivere’s message of economic freedom resonated with younger voters, disillusioned by sky-rocketing housing costs, declining services and a sense that opportunity is slipping away—or being pulled beyond their grasp; but his campaign lacked cultural courage.  He avoided the questions animating national life:  

What does it mean to be Canadian?

How do we live together?

What should we preserve?

What are our shared values?

In side-stepping these crucial questions, he forfeited the deeper cultural contest to the Liberals—and so they won.

It is fashionable in some conservative circles to dismiss the “culture war” as unserious, a distraction from economic policy or constitutional governance; but history shows otherwise.  Nations are stories we tell ourselves; lose control of the story, and you lose the nation.  The left knows this.  That is why they fight for the schools, the churches, the corporate HR departments, the arts councils, the film boards, and not just for the bureaucracy or unions.   They know that while budgets come and go, and governments rise and fall, cultural institutions shape how we see ourselves—and what we expect from our leaders.

Conservatives on the other hand have avoided confrontation—too afraid of being labeled intolerant or mean-spirited.  The result is a kind of institutional loneliness for conservative voters.  Poilievre seemed poised to break this time worn pattern; but when it mattered, he blinked.  He skipped bold opportunities, like a potential appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which had helped swing the 2024 U.S. Presidential election to Trump.  Instead, he play it safe—and lost.

Yet this loss was not merely tactical.  It was civilizational.  By refusing to challenge the cultural orthodoxies of identity politics, victimhood, and hollowed-out liberalism, Polliviere offered relief without renewal—and Canadians noticed.  Late-stage ambivalence dimmed his earlier clarity, leaving many voters asking: “is he just another politician?”

This pattern of conservative retreat did not happen overnight.  It is the result of what the left has long understood and the right has ignored:  that politics are downstream of culture, not the other way around.  While conservatives balanced budgets, progressives marched through the institutions.  The universities which once taught history, literature, and philosophy as pillars of Western civilization became sites for deconstructing the very idea of Western culture.  Public broadcasting transformed from nation-building to narrative management.  Even primary schools shifted, replacing citizenship and civic virtue with ‘inclusion’, ‘victimhood’, and identity politics.

Each generation of Conservatives told themselves that they could make peace with these cultural shifts.  Brian Mulroney apparently thought that free trade would secure prosperity no matter who controlled the media.  Harper acted as if he believed that fiscal management and security policy were enough to govern around the creeping cultural rot.  Even Poilievre, for all his rhetorical skill, sought to harness economic discontent while barely touching the sacred cows of diversity, multiculturalism, or racial progressivism.  

The left never stopped building. They understood something that conservatives did not:  win the schools, wind the screens, win the songs—and you win the next generation’s soul.  As progressives seized the cultural heights, conservatives retreated to fiscal talking points, hoping that the numbers would eventually tell the story; but spreadsheets do not inspire movements the way that only grand narratives can.

Canadian conservatives now face a choice.  We can continue managing decline, or offer a compelling moral vision.  That means recovering what conservatism is for:  rooted in family, faith, and tradition.  Order that makes freedom possible.  Citizenship as responsibility, not merely civil rights.  

To win the future, conservatives must cease treating culture as secondary.  We must challenge corrosive ideologies and offer a story worth believing in.  A story of duty, of dignity, and shared purpose.  Without that, conservatives may win debates and votes, but we will lose Canada.

All of which only begs a deeper question:  “if all levels of government, including the people who are doing the accountability are corrupt, then do we not still end up in the same place?”

The point is that if our people are corrupt, then our government must be also.  If our men and women are morally corrupt, then it will be impossible to protect that government from moral corruption.  This therefore places the onus upon us to be a self-governed, moral people.

We require a sense of awareness that if our people are corrupt, then our government and institutions will be also.  We need to put good people into government.  If our people are moral and good individuals willing to step into roles of authority and have an unflinching steadfastness, a moral backbone, then there is hope yet to construct a moral society.  

There is a quotation that I have been sharing from 17th Century English literary giant, John Milton.  Milton was a poet, polemicist, civil servant, and an eloquent advocate for free speech.  His most famous work was the epic poem, Paradise Lost, which tells the story of the fall of mankind into sin.  In his 1649 tract The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton wrote:

“For indeed none can love freedom heartily, but good men:  the rest love not freedom, but license:  which never hath more scope, or more indulgence than under tyrants…consequently neither do bad men hate tyrants, but have always been readiest with falsified names to Loyalty and Obedience to colour over their base compliance.”

The point here is that if we love license or make prosperity our God, then we will lose freedom.  If our society is populated by bad men and women, then we will be unable to hate tyranny, because bad human beings are necessarily tyrants.  So what we really need is not just a consideration of new political and institutional structures, but to take a closer look at our hearts.  Here, it must be remembered that a moral person is not one who has never sinned; but rather one who is no longer under the power of sin, set free through confession of sin and repentance.  

When confronted with the question:  “What is wrong with the world?”  G.K. Chesterton responded:  “Dear Sirs, I am.  Yours, G.K. Chesterton.”

By extension, when we ask the question “what is wrong with Canada?” The only useful answer is “We are.”  So what can we do to change that?  Obviously, our country needs a government, it needs accountability and good structures; but above all, it needs good people.  It needs good men and women.  It needs responsible people.  It needs those who are good both in private and in public.  It needs those willing to fight for what is right and true.  The challenge is here.  Some of us might need to be dragged, kicking and screaming into positions of authority—because like the good hobbits of the shire, we do not long for power.  

So how do we raise up good men and women?

For that, we need the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Word of God presents us with our sins, breaks us down, and then raises us up as newly baptized followers of Jesus Christ.   

I envision this happening as Christian men and women in government grow a moral spine, through daily confession of sin, and as those who are not yet Christian turn from their sins to Jesus Christ.  It also happens that as young people are raised in the Christian home and church, confessing the sins of their youth, and learning virtue as it comes from the Spirit and the teaching of the Law of God in the Church. 

For this we need revival in the church and at home.  We need covenant renewal worship.  We need faithful and public preaching.  We need to show that if our society and our nation will change, then somehow we need to hate our sin more than we do the consequences of turning from it.  For that, we need to boldly preach the glory of the cross and resurrection and ascension of Christ in this dying culture.