More than half of Canadians agree with Supreme Court ruling that bans prayer in public life: poll

theglobeandmail.com
June 8, 2015
By Joseph Brean

More than half of Canadians support a ban on prayer in public life, such as council meetings or legislative sessions, as was recently imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In a survey of 1,504 Canadian adults, taken after the Supreme Court found official public prayers violate the state’s duty of religious neutrality, three-quarters approved of just starting meetings with no ceremony at all, and a similar proportion approved of a moment of silence.

The least acceptable idea was for rotating specific prayers - Jewish on Monday, for example, Muslim on Tuesday, Christian on Wednesday - which only 30 per cent of people found acceptable.

Far more - 52 per cent - approved of a generic prayer to God that did not mention any specific faith. Curiously, two-thirds of Canadians liked the idea of a “quick inspiring pep talk” in place of a prayer.

But a sizeable minority, even including non-religious people, wants to hang on to these traditions, apparently for their own sake.

More than 40 per cent approved of a Christian prayer referring to Jesus, and some of these people are atheists.

“They do exist,” said Shachi Kurl, senior vice-president of the Angus Reid Institute. “The affinity towards keeping traditions as they are appears to, at least when it comes to the national anthem, trump any discomfort we may have around God in the agora, the public square.

“Despite an increasingly secularist view when it comes to public prayer and God in the public sphere, there is a desire to hang on to these traditions,” she said.

The poll followed the Supreme Court decision’s in a case about Saguenay, Que., whose council had taken its religiosity particularly far. It started meetings with the sign of the cross, in council chambers decorated with a crucifix and “a Sacred Heart statue fitted with a red electric votive light,” the court noted.

Alain Simoneau, an atheist constituent, objected to the prayer, which read, in French, “O God, eternal and almighty, from Whom all power and wisdom flow, we are assembled here in Your presence to ensure the good of our city and its prosperity. We beseech You to grant us the enlightenment and energy necessary for our deliberations to promote the honour and glory of Your holy name and the spiritual and material (well-being) of our city.”

After winning at a human rights tribunal and then losing at appeals court, Simoneau’s view won the day in April at Canada’s top court.

“The prayer recited by the municipal council in breach of the state’s duty of neutrality resulted in a distinction, exclusion and preference based on religion - that is, based on S’s sincere atheism - which, in combination with the circumstances in which the prayer was recited, turned the meetings into a preferential space for people with theistic beliefs,” the court decided.

“Through the recitation of the prayer at issue during the municipal council’s public meetings, the respondents are consciously adhering to certain religious beliefs to the exclusion of all others. In so doing, they are breaching the state’s duty of neutrality.”

The poll aimed to measure public reaction to this decision, but it also “canvasses a much bigger picture around what is the role of prayer in public life,” Kurl said.

It found 56 per cent are in favour of the ruling, and 25 per cent strongly in favour, compared to 44 per cent against, and 18 per cent strongly against.

Kurl said it shows the country is divided along generational, regional and religious lines. “Again, we find ourselves as a country a little bit all over the map,” she said.

Quebec and British Columbia were most supportive of the ban, and Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada were in strongest disagreement. Two-thirds of younger Canadians support it, compared to fewer than half of those older than 55.

One of the most striking findings, though, was on the similar idea of removing the line “God keep our land glorious and free” from the national anthem.

Typically, discussions of changing the lyrics to O Canada are about making “True patriot love in all thy sons command” gender neutral, which enjoys broad support.

But only seven per cent of respondents agreed with the idea of striking this God reference. Of the rest, most found it “fine” as it was, and slightly fewer agreed the line is “maybe not ideal, but that’s how it was written so just keep it.”

The survey of 1,504 Canadian adults was conducted April 30 to May 3. Because the participants all signed up as members of the Angus Reid Forum online community of 130,000 people, a true margin of error cannot be calculated, but a randomized poll of similar size would have a margin of 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Participants in Angus Reid Forum are paid in the form of “Survey Dollars,” which are redeemable for goods and services, and entrance in prize contests.