The council meeting in Clarington, Ontario, opened this past Monday with a time of reflection. It always does. This week, however, Regional Councillor Willie Woo, rather than invoking the god called God, read a reflective piece that made no mention of the town’s previously favoured deity.
Mayor Adrian Foster, who felt no one would be harmed by the use of the word “God”, recognized that a Supreme Court ruling against Saugenay, PQ, applies across the country. After the ruling, God might just disappear from public meetings across Canada faster than your average spring thaw.
The ruling reinforced a wise perspective: in diversity, neutrality. “This neutrality requires that the state neither favour nor hinder any particular belief, and the same holds true of non-belief. It requires that the state abstain from taking any position and thus avoid adhering to a particular belief.”
That’s the thing. Whether you believe in the god called God or the god called Allah, whether you sit in silence with a group of friends for an hour each week, whether you find your inspiration through poetry or the writings of ancient philosophers, you should be able to participate in a formal function of the government without its practices identifying you as someone who does or does not belong. The realization is a simple one. The application of it will out the ugly in us.
For example, Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Cecil Clarke, stepped outside the council chambers prior to the municipal meeting he was about to chair to lead supporters in the non-denominational prayer that is used both there and in Halifax. While he has said that he plans to invite council members to a moment of silence before future meetings, he’s also suggested he may print the prayer in the meeting agenda in order to be able to read it silently to himself as the meeting opens. I can’t help but wonder how that’s going to put him in a positive frame of mind.
Gretta thank you for being brave enough to stand up for your beliefs. At first there is ridicule, then anger and finally it is believed as being self evident! This is the history of all social change. Would we not have women vote, not be exposed to second hand smoke, allow women equal rights/access to education, not discriminate against LQGBT and an end to slavery and beating children “don’t spare the rod”. All of these except smoking were justified by the religeous right quoting the bible. With a record like this clearly more changes are needed. Jim Hyland