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