B.C. city facing possible lawsuit over council prayer [Video]

The B.C. Humanist Association has announced plans to sue a Vancouver Island city for breaching religious neutrality by including a Christian prayer in council.

The prayer took place during the inaugural meeting of Parksville city council following the 2022 civic election, and was delivered by a local pastor.

“I’ve been asked to pray a blessing so that’s what I’m going to do,” Andrew Gulevich of the Parksville Fellowship Baptist Church said at the meeting. “I invite you to pray with me to our God.”

Chief Michael Recalma of the Qualicum First Nation offered a blessing at the same meeting, though his remarks were not referenced in the BCHA’s complaint.

The Supreme Court of Canada found opening council meetings with prayers was unconstitutional in a unanimous 2015 decision, calling the practice a “breach of the state’s duty of neutrality.”

The B.C. Humanist Association has been monitoring local governments’ compliance with the decision since …