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Today the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that reciting prayers at municipal council meetings is a breach of religious neutrality and discriminates against public freedoms. It’s a decision that potentially could mean an end to Halifax Regional Council’s non-denominational “invocation.”
The Supreme Court ruling originates in 2007, when a resident of Saguenay, Quebec tried to stop public prayers by city councillors. You can read today’s full decision here.
Halifax Regional Council’s invocation at the start of every council meeting is meant to be inoffensive, but the prayer still mentions “God, our creator” and still ends with an “Amen.” Regardless of the unnamed deity directed towards, it’s also still a prayer, which the Supreme Court decision suggests is discriminatory on its own.
“The recitation of the prayer at the council’s meetings was above all else a use by the council of public powers to manifest and profess one religion to the exclusion of all others,” the court’s decision about Saguenay reads. “On the evidence in the record, it was reasonable for the Tribunal to conclude that the City’s prayer is in fact a practice of a religious nature.”
Halifax spokesperson Jennifer Stairs says it’s “too early for us to know” how today’s Supreme Court ruling will impact council’s regular praying. “Legal’s aware of it and is reviewing it.”
Ottawa’s council put morning prayers on hold today before their regular meeting. Mayor Jim Watson said Ottawa would review the practice in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. But one HRM councillor doesn’t think the ruling will be much of a problem.
“If I know Halifax, we’ll probably have some advice from the clerk, and then some legal advice. Then we’ll take a look at it and make sure our prayer is neutral and accepting enough for everybody,” says Matt Whitman, councillor for Hammonds Plains – St. Margaret’s. “Whether’s it ‘s a prayer or piece of poetry we’ll probably find something.”
Whitman, a member of the StoneRidge Fellowship Baptist church in Sackville, says the current invocation is so light in its wording that it would be hard for anyone to find it offensive.
“I think of all the things I hear in the run of a day, and all the things I could get upset about,” he says. “We’re supposed to be a world of tolerance, and I think what we say before council is so neutral. For less than one minute of a day, I think it’s probably the least offensive thing you’ll come across.”
Public prayer at municipal meetings has increasingly come under pressure in Canada—from those both for and against its practice.
In Halifax, public expressions of faith are still displayed with pride by elected officials. Mayor Mike Savage recently spoke at the Nova Scotia Prayer Leadership Breakfast, where the longtime Catholic called the separation of church and state “confusing.”
“Everything that touches and influences us is part of who we are,” Savage is quoted by the Herald’s Brett Bundale. “We’re affected by what we watch, what we hear, what we eat. So our faith, whatever it is or isn’t, has to be a part of that.”
Upon taking office, Savage told the press the city’s non-denominational prayer was “pretty good” and praised it for having the approval of the Multicultural Association of Nova Scotia.
It’s worth mentioning that Halifax’s interfaith invocation is a far cry from Seguenay’s councillors praying and making the sign of the cross—as well as their city hall openly displaying a crucifix and sacred heart statue. But the intensity of the discrimination shouldn’t matter, says the Supreme Court.
“The pursuit of the ideal of a free and democratic society requires the state to encourage everyone to participate freely in public life regardless of their beliefs. A neutral public space free from coercion, pressure and judgment on the part of public authorities in matters of spirituality is intended to protect every person’s freedom and dignity, and it helps preserve and promote the multicultural nature of Canadian society. The state’s duty to protect every person’s freedom of conscience and religion means that it may not use its powers in such a way as to promote the participation of certain believers or non‑believers in public life to the detriment of others.
What will happen in Halifax remains to be seen. The Supreme Court does seemingly allow some considerations in their verdict for a prayer that can be established as non-denominational. Whatever the result, Whitman says the reflective moment still has an important place at council meetings.
“It’s a tip of a hat that there’s more to us as human than what’s in that room,” he says. “There’s more to it than us sitting around that table.”
Halifax Regional Council invocation
God, Our Creator
Bless us as we gather today for this meeting.
You know our most intimate thoughts; guide our minds and hearts so that we will work for the good of our community and help all of Your people.
Give us today the strengths and wisdom to carry out our duties in the most caring and respectful ways.
Teach us to be generous in our outlook, courageous in the face of difficulty, and wise in our decisions.
Amen
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“For less than one minute of a day, I think it’s probably the least offensive thing you’ll come across.”
with all due respect to your office, the least offensive thing would be to do would be to have a solemn moment for everyone and do your own prayer in your own head. the least offensive thing to do is say nothing out loud that reveals to me if yours is the abrahamic gawd, shiva, buddha, satan himself or whoever. we don’t want or need to know. you’re a councillor. you represent everyone when you exercise your official duties, not just the christians. why are you and the rest of the council giving us a reason to believe otherwise when it isn’t necessary? you can pray. i can’t stop you. but you hold an office of the people. if you don’t understand that holding a gov’t job of authority means that some in the community think your voice carries more weight than an average joe, and that as a result, you need to be a human first and a christian second (or at least appear that way) then you don’t deserve to hold the office.
Some of us see your efforts to be ecumenical and non-offensive as simply a very cynical and insincere way of (still!) injecting your gawd into everything and everywhere it isn’t needed, warranted, or even wanted from where i’m standing. when you punch the clock and you’re on the taxpayer dime, pretend you’re in a uniform or whatever it takes but shut up about your belief in magic zombies and sky daddies. please and thank you. save it for home.
Our founding fathers fought for our right to serve God. Our charter of rights and freedoms states that this country recognizes the supremacy of God. When God is gone from our country there is only darkness left, is this what you want for our country, our family, and our very good way of life???you have no idea what you are bringing upon our beloved Canada. Stop these atheists in their tracks. I am speaking up for our children and future generations that want to serve God. P.S God keep our land glorious and free. Paul Dunn
I do not agree that taking prayers our of council is good for our country. I am against it.
You do not speak for me, I am on Gods side.
Paul Dunn
Yea……over due. Remove “God” from all aspects of our government. downtownleroybrown said it well enough.
paul dunn:
you do know that the charter of rights and freedoms wasn’t written by our fathers of confederation, right? and you do know that “the founding fathers” are from another country, of whom many believed that the personal gawd was the only true one, and that organized christianity was a sham, right?
and they “…fought for our right to serve…” gawd? wtf does that even mean? why, whatever folks like you want it to mean, of course. our own ‘founding’ fathers attempted to commit genocide as they conquered this land and took it from those already living here. they were not the least bit christian about it. it was greed – a mortal sin- and not benevolence that brought about christian supremacy in canada.
is everything the fathers of confederation did bad and morally wrong? maybe not, but let’s not sugarcoat what they really did to other non-christians while they simultaneously professed to serve gawd. saying and doing are two different things. among other crimes, they knowingly let thousands of women and children starve to death and die horrible deaths from preventable disease. what would jeezus and gawd have to say about that?
and enough with your christian supremacist vocabulary. seriously. sure, i’m an atheist, but i don’t need you to be one too. i hardly want gawd “…gone from our country…”. believe in whatever hokem you want. just keep it to yourself. that’s in section 2a of the charter. freedom of conscience. and let’s also not forget what comes right after “…recognizes the supremacy of gawd… AND THE RULE OF LAW.” we are a nation of laws, and not the laws from your favourite book of bronze-age jewish fairy tales, but rather the laws of man. one of those laws is you don’t get to force your beliefs on anyone else and this is especially true if you hold elected office. outside of your church, NOBODY CARES. you might as well save all your outward expressions of love/fear for your gawd for your house of worship or your own private space. to conduct yourself otherwise is exuding anti-social behaviour. it’s like farting in an elevator: certainly not completely unexpected when sharing space with other humans, but it’s very rude and highly unwelcome. hold it in til you’re in private. then let ‘er rip. if you insist on sharing, then please do us all a favour and save it for when you’re around other public farters.
further, that the christian majority would include a reference to gawd in any kind of sweeping legislation like the charter doesn’t surprise me, but it does tell me something about them: they’re frightened that if it isn’t included right there in the text, other people might stop believing in the truth of it as a statement of fact – and as well they should. writing it down doesn’t make it real anymore than the existence of spider-man comics proves he is real. if you think a belief in gawd that inspired the trudeau cabinet to include such a line in the preamble to the charter convinces me that it was the right thing to do, you’d be wrong.
it seems to me that those who really want to bring back gawd and religion as part of government are running countries like iran and saudi arabia. despite how gawd is injected into the daily runnings of those places, i don’t think those regimes are models for us to emulate. so what will happen when gawd and your religious dogma is pushed to the margins in the governance of humans? darkness, you say? well, i’m not afraid. the last time it happened, they called it “the enlightenment”.
Wow, looks like you’re a little outnumbered there Mr Dunn. Not sure what you mean by “our right to serve God”. I certainly don’t want the right to serve anyone or anything, especially when that thing is an imaginary celestial dictator. The removal of “God” from our country couldn’t come fast enough. Hitchens was completely correct. God is not great, and religion does, in fact, poison everything.
Fuck God.
And fuck Whitman.
I understand Whitman. He’s one of those ‘types’ that believe that only certain rules apply to him while all of the rules apply to everyone else.
I can’t believe this is still happening, I’m pretty sure it was taken out of schools a long time ago, wouldn’t it have made sense to take this superstition shit out of our government as well?
Can’t they have that guy Merry do some woo-woos or something? And bring incense.