The Harper governments new watchdog for international religious persecution is a scholar of Scottish nationalism who, until a few weeks ago, was a mid-level bureaucrat at the federal Department of Natural Resources.

If the experience of his U.S. counterpart is any indication, Andrew Bennett, appointed Canadas first ambassador of religious freedom this week, should study up on the hard-knuckle office politics of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

The Conservatives are installing the Office of Religious Freedom within the secular confines of Foreign Affairs, just as Bill Clinton located a similar office inside the U.S. State Department 14 years ago. The Canadian office, like the U.S. one, will criticize mistreatment of religious minorities in other countries.

A U.S.-based expert on religious persecution said on Wednesday that successive appointees to the post in the United States have found themselves sidelined by Washingtons State Department as diplomats rebuffed attempts to introduce a new player into the countrys foreign policy.

These ambassadors at large for international religious freedom in the State Department, theres been three of them. Its fair to say all three, they have been marginalized. That didnt mean they did nothing, but the State Department didnt want them in the main line of stuff, said Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institutes Center for Religious Freedom.

Mr. Marshall holds dual Canadian-American citizenship and was approached about a year ago to see if he was interested in the post of ambassador with the Harper governments religious freedom watchdog but was not formally offered the job.

He applauded the creation of the office, saying many in the West underestimate the influence of religion in politics around the world. The focus will be not so much on religious freedom itself but on violations of human rights in general on the grounds of religion.

Dr. Bennett, 40, has been described as the dean of a private Christian liberal arts college in Ottawa, but associates said the endeavour is really a part-time role. The Ukrainian Catholic sub-deacons full-time job was as a manager at the Department of Natural Resources, and his expertise lies in history and political science.

His 2002 doctoral thesis in political science at the University of Edinburgh was titled Nations of Distinction: An Analysis of Nationalist Perspectives on Constitutional Change in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland. His McGill masters thesis was 20th Century Bannockburn: Scottish Nationalism and the Challenge Posed to British Identity 1970-1980. The battle of Bannockburn was a victory for the Scots in their 14th- and 15th-century wars of independence.

Mr. Marshall said U.S. State Department officials have often resented the intrusion of their ambassador for international religious freedom. Generally, the State Department does not like ambassadors at large for religious freedom. One thing they are usually doing is criticizing and raising issues with other governments and [U.S.] ambassadors to those countries dont like what they think of as crossed lines, he said.

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Religious-freedom ambassador will face challenges from his own department