Report: Saskatchewan Municipalities Including Unconstitutional Prayer in Meetings
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: September 1, 2014
Publisher Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Freethought Newswire
Original Link: https://www.bchumanist.ca/sk_muni_prayer_report_press_release
Publication Date: October 9, 2024
Organization: British Columbia Humanist Association
Organization Description: The British Columbia Humanist Association has been providing a community and voice for Humanists, atheists, agnostics, and the non-religious of Metro Vancouver and British Columbia since 1982. We support the growth of Humanist communities across BC, provide Humanist ceremonies, and campaign for progressive and secular values.
For the sixth time, research from the BCHA has identified municipalities violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
A new report from the BC Humanist Association (BCHA) found that multiple Saskatchewan municipalities continue to include prayers in their council meetings, despite a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that deemed the practice unconstitutional.
The report, An Impossible Task: Unconstitutional Prayers in Saskatchewan Municipal Council Meetings, is the sixth in the BCHA’s ongoing Saguenay Project, which audits and promotes compliance with the 2015 Mouvement laïque québécois v. Saguenay decision.
The release of the report comes as Saskatchewan voters are set to go to the polls in November to elect new local governments.
“Prayers turn council meetings into a preferential space for believers and tell atheists they are less welcome in their community,” said Ian Bushfield, Executive Director of the BCHA. “With the publication of this report, we’re hoping Saskatchewan is the first province to have completely secular inaugural council meetings later this fall.”
The report identified Prince Albert and Pinehouse as including prayers at the start of every regular council meeting. Additionally, at least three — Moose Jaw, North Battleford and Pinehouse — included prayers in their most recent inaugural meetings in 2020.
“Almost a decade after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Saguenay, it is disappointing to see municipalities continuing to violate their duty of religious neutrality in Saskatchewan,” said Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Research Coordinator at the BCHA. “Including prayer in municipal council meetings not only violates the municipality’s duty of religious neutrality but creates an environment in municipal council chambers where some residents are made to feel less welcome than others.”
The report singled out the City of Prince Albert as the “most egregious example” of a Saskatchewan municipality violating the Saguenay decision, as council instructs a staff member to deliver a prayer at the start of each regular council meeting.
“Employees are particularly vulnerable relative to the elected council,” said Bushfield. “There should never be any expectation that an employee of a secular government expresses a religious position. Such a requirement acts as a barrier to nonreligious (or even simply pro-secular) staff who would be forced to violate their conscience to perform their duties.”
The BCHA previously found seven religious invocations or prayers in British Columbia’s 2022 inaugural council meetings but has since secured commitments from those municipalities that all future meetings will be ‘prayer-free.’ Previous reports have found instances of municipal prayers in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
The report concludes by calling on all municipalities to remove ‘prayers’ or ‘invocations’ from their meeting agendas, arguing that such changes are vital to protecting the Charter rights of all citizens.
Listen to a podcast summarize the report
Image credit: Wikimedia/Carolyn Carleton
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