Edmonton council will still pray before meetings

Edmonton's mayor says city council will continue pray before meetings, despite a Supreme Court of Canada decision this week that ruled a municipal council in Quebec cannot open its meetings with a prayer.

In a unanimous decision, the country's top court said that by reciting a Catholic prayer before meetings, the Quebec town of Saguenay was infringing on freedom of conscience and religion.

Mayor Don Iveson said Edmonton is reviewing the practice here.

"I want to make a distinction," he said. "We don't have a prayer, we have many different prayers, from many different faith communities. They rotate regularly through. And I think that adds a wonderful dimension and respects the diversity of our city."

Iveson said he has never personally heard anyone complain about the prayers. The city's legal branch is now reviewing the top-court ruling.

"We'll continue to celebrate the rich diversity of faiths that we find in our community at the beginning of our council meets," Iveson said, "unless we understand that the rules have changed."

Following the announcement of the ruling, some elected officials elsewhere in the country stopped reciting pre-council prayers or committed to reviewing their prayer policies.

Ottawa's city council dropped its morning prayer on Wednesday, as did the city of Regina and the community of Dieppe, N.B.

Both municipalities said they would review the practice — something constitutional law expert Errol Mendes suspects many town and city councils will do in the days to come.

The Supreme Court said Canadian society has evolved and given rise to a "concept of neutrality, according to which the state must not interfere in religion and beliefs."

This week's ruling puts an end to an eight-year legal battle that began with a complaint filed by atheist Alain Simoneau and a secular-rights organization against Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay.

The court ordered the City of Saguenay and the mayor to stop the prayers. It also ordered the city and Tremblay to pay Simoneau a total of $33,200 in compensatory damages, punitive damages and costs.