And that's a Fatwa...

On you, and you, and you...

Council voted 9-5 Thursday to ignore a letter from Secular Ontario, an organization striving to eliminate the Lord’s Prayer from municipal procedural bylaws.

“We have 151 years of tradition and we’re going to throw it out the window,” said Dan McCaw, reeve of Wollaston Township. “This county was put together by church people.”

The Belleville law firm O’Flynn Weese advised the county in a letter that switching to a non-secular prayer will ward off the threat of lawsuit.

The correspondence cited Allen versus the County of Renfrew and Freitag versus Penetanguishene, wherein courts ruled that saying the prayer infringes on the rights and freedoms of non-Christians.

Read the letter here

We are sure you will agree that it is totally unacceptable in a democratic society for any official government body to act illegally, and we expect that you will, therefore, want to put an end to the offending practice immediately.

I've gotta wonder why they were so sure...

A lot of the rural residents around here take their religion and their independence pretty seriously. My guess here is that O’Flynn Weese is gonna start seeing a sharp drop-off in walk-in business.

But there were some stalwart souls who were standing up to the incipient jihad...

Bancroft mayor Lloyd Churchill said Ontario is turning into a province where the minority is louder than the majority.

David Golem, reeve of Limerick, suggested changing the Lord’s prayer to a moment of silent prayer, which was defeated.

And let's not forget the secular humanists, on the other side of the theological fence...

Voting in favour of examining alternatives were Panabaker, Faraday Reeve Carol Tinney, Golem, Tyendinaga Reeve Margaret Walsh and Stirling-Rawdon Deputy Mayor Michael Regan, who filled in for Mayor Peter Kooistra.

Interesting times in Hastings County, Ontario.

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UPDATE: Who's behind Secular Ontario?

Registrant:
Peter C Lee

First Registered:
June 13, 2005

Let Secular Ontario know how you feel.

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LAST WORD: Another legal lightning bolt...

Canada's highest court ruled Friday that citizens don't have a constitutional right to a lawyer in every legal case they are involved in.

In a strange turn of events, the lawyer bringing the suit was killed during a stunt to publicise this particular matter.

Christie was killed by a minivan during a cross-country cycle to deliver a petition to the Harper government on the high cost of justice last year.

He argued that the tax, which the B.C. government imposed in 1993, inhibited people from retaining his services.

Technorati Tags: Hastings County, Lord’s Prayer, Secular Ontario