December 18, 2006
By JORGE BARRERA, OTTAWA SUN

Municipalities that open their council meetings with the Lord's Prayer could be served with court papers in the new year. A group trying to exorcise prayer from the municipal council chamber is mulling legal action.

'Shocked' by apathy

A spokesman for Secular Ontario said the organization is "shocked" by the provincial government's apathy on the issue and the intransigence of municipal councils that refuse to stop reciting words ascribed to Jesus of Nazareth to begin their sessions. "The province is turning a blind eye to an illegal activity and waiting for private citizens to enforce it on a municipality-to-municipality basis," said Secular Ontario board member and Ottawa lawyer Dan Mayo. "It's a political hot potato."

Secular Ontario has targeted 18 municipalities across the province that open their council meetings with the Lord's Prayer. The group claims they violate the law set in a 1996 Ontario Court of Appeal decision. The court found that the Lord's Prayer violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if done at the beginning of council meetings. The court said the prayer imposed a moral tone on proceedings that could not be justified.

Peterborough Mayor Paul Ayotte said his council has no plans to stop reciting the prayer. "These guys need to get a life," said Ayotte. "The rest of us have rights under the Charter of Rights. I have freedom of speech and of religion."

The province has said it's up to municipal councils to ensure they're in compliance with the law. The province interprets the 1996 decision as specific to Penetanguishine municipal council where the complaint originated.

Changed habits

But Mayo points out that public school boards across the province changed their praying habits after a 1988 Court of Appeal ruling against the Lord's Prayer in class.

In 2000, Queen's Park faced controversy over its use of the Lord's Prayer in its opening rituals. But the Speaker ruled the court decision did not apply to the legislature.