A March 29 social media post by Veterans Affairs Canada wishing veterans a “happy March holiday season” caused quite an uproar among many politicians and veterans, who worry that the Christian Easter holiday is being purposely renamed.

“Is [Veterans Affairs] too woke to acknowledge either the cultural or religious significance of Easter?” Conservative MP Michael Barrett wrote on X on March 30. “53% of Canadians are Christian. And nobody worth worrying about is offended by wishes of a Happy Easter.”

Observers have noted increasing instances of Christians feeling sidelined in Canada in recent years.

Canada is rated as the third-worst persecutor of Christians among Western nations, according to the 2024 edition of a report on the “intensifying intolerance toward Christians in the West,” published in January by the U.S.-based Family Research Council. The council’s Center for Religious Liberty documented incidents of discrimination and found 36 in Canada between 2020 and 2023, behind the United States at 58 and the United Kingdom at 43.