N.B. legislature says no to one-time recital of Hindu prayer
CBC
The New Brunswick legislature has flatly rejected a request for a one-time reading of a non-Christian prayer at the opening of an upcoming sitting day.
Rajan Zed, who has delivered a Hindu prayer at state assemblies and city councils around the United States, made the offer to deliver the prayer.
In a news release, Zed said Speaker Bill Oliver and legislature clerk Shayne Davies turned him down, citing the existing Christian-only prayer.
"As indicated by the Speaker, our well-established practice dating back over a century has been to start each day with a prayer consisting of two separate invocations followed by the Lord's Prayer," Davies wrote, as quoted by Zed.
"At this time, the Assembly does not intend to deviate from this practice."
In his release, Zed, a resident of Nevada, called the rejection "a case of blatant unfairness, exclusionary attitude, discrimination, favouritism, imposing one kind of religious observance, and does not speak well of a democratic society."
Zed said in an email to CBC News that he made the request last November and made two earlier offers in 2009 and 2010.
Oliver responded in December, Zed said, that he would decline the offer "as we have rules of order that are followed and will not alter them, at this time."
Davies said the legislature would not comment.
Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has recited Hindu prayers at assemblies ranging from the municipal council in the small city of Lodi, Calif., to the U.S. Senate.
Green MLA Kevin Arseneau, who tried in 2019 to replace the Christian prayers with a daily moment of silent worship and reflection, said the request wasn't brought to the legislative administration committee, an all-party group that oversees the assembly's practices.
Kanwal Chadha, the president of the ISKCON Fredericton Hindu temple, said the prayer would have been a positive signal to thousands of Hindus in New Brunswick.
"They will feel motivated and they will feel very happy about having our prayer [in a] session in New Brunswick," he said.
"If we have something which binds together, which will feel like we're in our second home, it will be good from the leaders in the legislative assembly."
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.