Mr. Baird has sought input from the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya community, the Aga Khan, a Holy See representative, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, and the US religious freedoms ambassador.

The Harper government says it is in the final stages of launching its religious freedom office. Some observers say while they expected the government to deliver on its campaign promise earlier this year, they sense officials are treading carefully in selecting an ambassador to lead the office—a task one analyst said might be taking longer than expected.

Joseph Lavoie, the acting director of communications for Foreign Minister John Baird, told Embassy the government is still ironing out all the details of the office, but the plan is to launch it this year.

“We’re still finalizing the last steps,” Mr. Lavoie said.

Several media reports in January cited government sources saying the government would launch the office early in 2012.

The Catholic Register, a newspaper owned by the Archdiocese of Toronto, quoted Mr. Lavoie in a Jan. 24 article saying that his government was “very close” to choosing a launch date.

“It’s early in the new year, I would classify early as the first quarter of the new year. So I would say the next month or two,” he was quoted as saying, in an article detailing Mr. Baird’s sit-down meeting on the office Jan. 18 in Toronto with Canadian faith leaders. A photo release about the meeting called the office’s creation a “key priority” for the government.

Mr. Lavoie said on Aug. 2 that the government’s goal has always been to announce the office in 2012. “So we still have a couple of months before the time runs out,” he said.

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