When Ontario’s new local governments take office following next month’s local elections, those inaugural council meetings are far more likely to open with a religious prayer than in any other province, according to new research from the BC Humanist Association (BCHA).
Prayers at municipal council meetings were deemed unconstitutional violations of the state’s duty of religious neutrality by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 2015 ruling MLQ v Saguenay. Since then, the BCHA has been auditing municipal compliance with the court’s decision and advocating for secularism in local government proceedings.
In the group’s latest report, “Amen, Again!”, 62 Ontario municipalities were flagged as having unconstitutional prayers at their 2022 inaugural meetings, and two (Laurentian Valley and Pembroke) open every council meeting with a prayer.
“While this is a marked improvement from our last look into Ontario municipal councils, we are still shocked by how many councils opened their inaugural meetings with a prayer,” said BCHA Executive Director Ian Bushfield and one of the report's co-authors.
In its previous report, the BCHA identified 156 (47.6%) municipalities that opened their 2018 inaugural council meetings with a prayer and nine (2.5%) that opened regular council meetings with a prayer. Since then, the BCHA’s volunteers have worked with constitutional lawyer Donald Bur to bring those scofflaws into compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision.
Ontarians elect their next local governments on Monday, October 26, 2026. After which, the newly elected mayors and councillors will take their oaths of office in a series of inaugural council meetings.
"With municipal elections around the corner in Ontario, we will be watching very closely to confirm that all municipalities fulfill their duty of religious neutrality at upcoming inaugural meetings and all meetings moving forward,” said Dr Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Research Coordinator for the BCHA. “Over ten years after the Saguenay decision, it is unacceptable that we are finding so many Ontario municipalities violating their duty of religious neutrality by including prayer in their meetings.”
Through The Saguenay Project, the BCHA has analyzed municipal council meetings in British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. Reports on the practices in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia municipalities are forthcoming.
Photo: Screenshot of Pundit Tripathi and Pandit Shukla tying a bracelet to newly elected Mayor Patrick Brown after delivering a prayer to council, November 15, 2022.