What All the Noise and Different Claims on Remembrance Day Military Prayer Ban Is About

Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Legion, which organizes the National Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa as well as many others across the country, has issued its own statement on the mater.
In the 2013 directive, before engaging in prayer at a ceremony, chaplains were required to invite those not disposed to praying to “use that time for silent personal reflection or contemplation as others pray.”
The new directive notes that for some, “prayer does not play a role in their lives.”
Instead, it provides guidance that during mandatory public military ceremonies, such as Remembrance Day events, chaplains should conduct “reflections,” and that those reflections need to be “inclusive in nature.”
“Chaplains shall endeavour to ensure that all feel included and able to participate in the reflection with a clear conscience, no matter their beliefs (religious, spiritual, agnostic, atheist),” the directive says.
The new directive also restricts chaplains from wearing any religious symbols at public military functions.
Chaplain General Bélisle said the new directive was needed after a 2015 Supreme Court decision requiring neutrality of the state, which he said the Royal Canadian Chaplain Service “has a legal obligation to abide by.”
He added that a committee will be formed to review the new directive.
However, that committee still hasn’t made any recommendations.
DND spokesperson Derek Abma told The Epoch Times last week that the committee’s work is still “ongoing,” and that all chaplains are required to follow the new directive.
Chaplains were also reminded of the new requirement ahead of this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies.
The issue was also raised by Conservative MP Chris Warkentin in the House of Commons on Nov. 8.
“Will the government end its attack on the vocation of chaplains and allow them the freedom to pray?” Warkentin said.
While Warkentin specifically referred to a limitation imposed on chaplains, Liberal MP Marie-France Lalonde, parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence, referred to a “ban on prayers” in her response on behalf of the government.
“Let’s be absolutely clear, the Chaplain General issued this directive independently, and it does not ban prayer,” she said.
“Actually, the directive simply seeks to help our CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] chaplains make their public addresses more inclusive to reflect the spiritual diversity of Canadians and our CAF members.”
However, in sharing a video of the exchange on X later on Nov. 8, Warkentin also referred to a prayer ban.
He added that the new directive, which he said the government had no part in, is about “expanding participation in the reflections of military chaplains—not about limiting it.”
“Any suggestions to the contrary are inaccurate and wrong,” he said, while adding that the Conservatives are “peddling lies for partisan political gain.”
The last time God was mentioned by a chaplain general at one of these occasions was in 2018.
“I invite all of you wishing to join me in prayer based on your individual beliefs to now turn your hearts to the God of your faith, or to take this moment for personal reflection,” he said in French.
“Loving God, we give thanks to those who have given their lives in the service of justice and peace. We know that peace is more than tolerating one another. It is recognizing ourselves in others and realizing that we are all on the path of life together,” he continued in English.
“Lord of justice and peace, enable us to lay down our own weapons of exclusion, intolerance, hatred. Make us instruments of your peace.”
“In respecting individual beliefs and conscience, I invited you to take this moment for contemplation,” he said.
“In the presence of our veterans, the living embodiment of valor and service, we pause to remember our men and women who serve our country that we might live in freedom and peace.”
Since taking over as Chaplain General in 2021, Bélisle has been continuing the same approach in his addresses at the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa.
“Let us remember that the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier represents thousands of Canadian faces and names. May each name become an additional motivation to work for peace and to put an end to the conflicts and divisions that plague our world,” Mason said in her address.