Commentary
For more than a century, Canadians gathered every Remembrance Day to honour our veterans with wreath-laying, reverent song, and solemn prayer. But thanks to an updated decree issued by the Department of National Defence, any mention of “religious specific language, including references to God” by military personnel at any public event, including Remembrance Day ceremonies, remains strictly prohibited.
The ban on religious prayer in public military settings has been in effect since 2023, but the Defence Department doubled down and expanded the restrictions in July of this year.
A chaplain who utters a traditional prayer to God will be in violation. As will any military personnel who sing hymns traditionally sung on Remembrance Day, including “The Lord’s My Shepherd.” One wonders what the soldiers, airmen, seaman, and merchant seamen who fell in Canada’s wars would think about that—the vast majority of whom were Christian….