The Knights of Columbus have not yet given up on the idea of placing its traditional nativity scene at city hall, despite a ban this year imposed by city administrators on the decades-long Christmas observance.
The Catholic fraternity is now exchanging communications with city hall, said Peter Vandermeer, the Grand Knight of the local Knights of Columbus chapter.
“All I can really say right now is we’re in communications with the city. That’s about all I would like to say right now,” said Vandermeer Dec. 8. He added he would not describe the on-going contact as negotiations.
“But I’m always optimistic,” Vandermeer said. City administrators based their decision on a Supreme Court of Canada unanimous decision released in 2015 that local governments should not open meetings with a prayer. And that stemmed from a complaint first made against the City of Saguenay in 2006.
The Supreme Court decision, however, was silent on the matter of religious symbols and while the city sought its own legal opinion, it has yet to release its contents.
City council has been silent on the matter with mayor Sean Bujtas telling The Terrace Standard that the decision was an “operational” one reached by city administrators.
“Staff came to this decision in light of a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada and following guidance from the BC Humanist Association,” he wrote, adding that the city believes it has “exhausted” the matter.
The BC Humanist Association has campaigned relentlessly to have municipalities not open meetings with a prayer and it did urge 23 B.C. municipalities this year, including Terrace, to stop the practice at inaugural council meetings that followed the October local government elections.
Terrace did agree with the association regarding prayer but the association’s website makes no mention of also demanding that displays such as nativity scenes be banned from public property.