October 9, 2024
This report examines the inclusion of prayers in municipal council meetings in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, and compliance with the Supreme Court of Canada's 2015 ruling in Mouvement laïque québécois v. Saguenay (Saguenay). That decision found the practice of opening council meetings with a prayer unconstitutional. Despite the ruling, three Saskatchewan municipalities included prayers in their 2020 inaugural meetings and two continued to include prayers in regular council meetings. Additionally, we identify instances of secular invocations and a moment of silence in municipal council meetings in Saskatchewan. We highlight the inclusion of Indigenous content in council meetings and the need for municipalities to avoid prescriptive invitations to Indigenous representatives. We reiterate our recommendation for local governments to eliminate religious rituals from their council meetings.
Municipalities with prayers in their council meetings
We reviewed the records of the 112 municipalities in Saskatchewan with a population over 1,000. We identified four municipalities that included prayer in their council meetings. Three (3.3%) of the 90 for which data were available included a prayer in their 2020 inaugural meetings and two (2.1%) of 95 included a prayer in their regular meetings.
Municipality | Inaugural | Regular |
Moose Jaw | ✔ | |
North Battleford | ✔ | |
Pinehouse | ✔ | ✔ |
Prince Albert | ✔ |
THE SAGUENAY PROJECT
This is the sixth in a series of reports from the BC Humanist Association that explore compliance with the Saguenay decision. In compiling these reports, we encourage municipalities to make their council meetings more accessible and welcoming to people of all beliefs and none. Each report follows a similar model and methodology but explores issues specific to the practice relating to ongoing municipal prayer in those jurisdictions.
Report | Province | Date | Regular prayers | Inaugural prayers |
Duty of Neutrality Beyond Saguenay | BC | Nov 2020 | 0/162 | 23*/162 |
In Open Defiance | MB | Mar 2022 | 4/101 | 6/101 |
Open for Unconstitutional Business | ON | Dec 2022 | 9/360 | 156/328 |
We Yelled at Them Until They Stopped | BC | Nov 2023 | 0/161 | 7/148 |
The Last Municipality Standing | AB | May 2024 | 6/177 | 6/172 |
While our study in municipalities across Canada is ongoing, several emerging trends can be identified: (1) The number of municipalities including prayer in their meetings (regular or inaugural) has declined since Saguenay. Some municipalities responded to the ruling by changing their practices: sometimes abolishing the practice altogether, other times altering or adjusting their procedures. (2) Despite this reduction, prayer continues to be included in some municipal council meetings, particularly inaugural meetings, across the country. (3) These prayers are disproportionately delivered by Christian men.
Our project seeks to highlight violations of the Saguenay ruling with the goal of increasing compliance with the ruling, thereby strengthening the separation of religion and government in Canada and ensuring that all are welcome in municipal council chambers across the country.