May 6, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- A proposal to omit the reading of the Lord's Prayer in the Ontario legislature has led to the temporarily crashing of a Canadian government website, as reported by The Canadian Press.
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Speaker Steve Peters, who is leading a committee to consider replacing the Christian text with another reading, says thousands have participated in the controversial debate through the legislature's website.
More than 5,700 Canadians outraged by the proposal flooded the website to have their opinions heard, prompting hundreds of calls to Peters' office pleading him to keep the Christian tradition alive.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has called on the province to consider a more inclusive prayer. Meanwhile, politicians responsible with sorting through the differing opinions say that most Canadians do not want Ontario to join the many other Canadian provinces that have already replaced the Lord's Prayer.
A similar outcry occurred in 2001, when the Conservative Ontario government last debated the replacing of the Lord's Prayer.
More than half the Conservative caucus have put forth petitions in the house regarding the topic and the committee has yet to hear from about 50 different faith groups. The handpicked organizations, which include the Assembly of First Nations, atheists and Christian denominations, to name a few, have been given until the end of May to make their case.
The Ontario government last updated its daily prayer in 1969, changing the preamble to the Lord's Prayer. On the federal side, both the House of Commons and the Senate read non-denominational prayers.
