April 15, 2025
This is the seventh report in our ongoing series as part of The Saguenay Project, which monitors and advocates for the elimination of prayer in Canadian municipal council meetings, following the 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling.
The focus of this specific report is regular council meetings in British Columbia. We identified no prayers in regular council meetings. Further, it includes updated findings around inaugural meetings from We Yelled at Them Until They Stopped. With the commitments we've received from the municipalities that included religious content in their 2022 inaugural prayers, the report declares BC municipalities to be "prayer free."
The report also examines related issues concerning religious neutrality, such as religious displays on public property and prayer breakfasts. It contrasts BC's progress with other Canadian provinces, while noting the increasing prevalence of Indigenous territorial acknowledgements in meetings.
The release of this report coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in MLQ v Sagueany.