The traditional prayer given before Essex County Council meetings is being suspended after a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada.
"We want to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court, certainly disappointed by it, but we will be abiding by it," says Essex County Warden Tom Bain.
He says a review of the decision from the country's highest court needs to be done to see if there's any way the council can continue the practice in another form.
"I think there's an over 100-page response from the Supreme Court on the ruling. We want to go over that, check all those details out, then if we need to, certainly we will not only suspend it, we will dismiss prayer," says Bain. "What can we do so that we can take into regards everyone's religion? We're not certainly wanting to zero in on any one religion, but to have some type of religion to start our meetings on."
The City of Windsor has ended its practice of prayer before council meetings as well after the court ruled on a case in Saguenay, Quebec, ordering an end to prayers before council meetings as the court stressed the state must be neutral on the matter of religious beliefs.