I, Ashu M. G. Solo, filed the following:

1. Civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor's Office) and Councillor Randy Donauer for prayer recitations at government organized events

2. Code of Conduct complaint against Mayor Don Atchison for potential online campaign advertising violations

3. Civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Saskatoon Transit Services) for promoting holidays from only one religion on city buses

4. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (Executive Committee) for retaliating against me by not reappointing me to the Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee and not appointing me to another civic committee or board

5. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (City Solicitor’s Office) for retaliating against me by trying to deprive me of my right to directly communicate with members of City Council and by telling employees of other City of Saskatoon departments to not talk to me

6. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Office) and City of Saskatoon (Living in Harmony Ad Hoc Subcommittee of Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee) for retaliating against me by not considering my submissions to the Living in Harmony Contest

This site contains my media releases, some case documents, emails to City Council, etc.

I don't waste my time arguing with opponents.

The backlash makes me much more determined to fight against bigotry and shows the need for these civil rights cases, so I'll be filing more civil rights cases. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

MEDIA ALERT: Executive Committee to debate prayer policy on Monday in response to Solo's prayer recitation case with Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission



From: Ashu M. G. Solo [mailto:amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us]
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 9:12 AM
To: amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us
Subject: MEDIA ALERT: Executive Committee to debate prayer policy on Monday in response to Solo's prayer recitation case with Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission

Dear Media:

The Saskatoon City Solicitor’s Office wrote a report about a new prayer policy in response to my prayer recitation civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office) and Councillor Randy Donauer with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.  This report can be found at 
http://www.saskatoon.ca/DEPARTMENTS/City%20Clerks%20Office/Boards%20and%20Committees/agendasandminutes/Documents/agendas_2013/a_ex_300913.pdf

The Executive Committee, which is composed of the mayor and councillors, will be debating a policy on prayers at their meeting at 2:00 PM on Monday, September 30, 2013 in Committee Room A at City Hall.  

The City Solicitor’s Office is saying the only way to respect everybody is to have no prayer recitations, a secular thanks without a reference to a God, or a moment of silence.  The City Solicitor’s Office is not calling for prayers from all religions or no prayers as has been suggested by some. 

However, the City Solicitor’s Office says the secular thanks can include spirituality.  This doesn’t even make sense.  A secular thanks can’t include spirituality.  I don’t think the City Solicitor’s Office even understands what “secular” means.

Prayer recitations from all religions is a ridiculous and impractical idea because according to the World Christian Encyclopedia by David Barrett, there are over 10,000 religions, 150 of which have a million or more followers, not including branches of each religion:  http://www.adherents.com/misc/WCE.html  The media has made a major mistake by not reporting this fact.  The vast majority of people don’t realize this.  Because you haven’t reported this, Atchison is getting away with saying that they should have prayer recitations from all religions.  Why haven’t you challenged Atchison on this and asked him how he’s going to have prayer recitations for the thousands of religions?  They would be praying all night to cover even a tiny fraction of the religions.  Are they going to have Voodoo religion prayer recitations and Scientology prayer recitations?  Where are they going to find people to recite all of these prayers?

I’m willing to accept no prayer recitations.  I prefer this option.

I’m willing to accept a secular thanks that has wording agreed upon by me in settling the case, that isn’t spiritual at all in nature, and that doesn’t reference a god or higher power. 

I’m unwilling to accept a moment of silence because this is still an attempt by the government to get people to pray.  If people want to pray before they eat, they can take their own moments of silence and pray or even audibly say prayers to themselves.  Nobody is stopping them.  Nobody cares.  There doesn’t need to be an official moment of silence.  Let people pray to their own versions of the divine or go ahead and dine.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is still investigating my prayer recitation civil rights case.  They’ll decide how to proceed soon, but they already decided that there is reasonable grounds to believe that the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code may have been violated with the prayer recitation.  I seek a judgment that has the effect of banning prayer recitations at government organized events throughout the province of Saskatchewan and that has significant persuasive value in other provinces.

The Centre for Inquiry Canada, Canadian Secular Alliance, and Canadian Civil Liberties Association support the removal of prayer recitations from government organized events.  These organizations have assisted me, but I’m self-represented.

You can interview me before or after the Executive Committee meeting.  I can be reached at amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us.  Also, you can interview Justin Trottier, spokesperson for the Canadian Secular Alliance and founder of the Centre for Inquiry Canada.  Justin is an advisor to me on this case and is really knowledgeable about secularism.  He can be reached at info@secularalliance.ca.

By the way, as of August 12, 2013, I’m the CEO of the Saskatoon GPS Association, the Saskatoon branch of the Green Party of Saskatchewan.  I was previously the acting CEO of the Saskatoon-Humboldt Federal Green Party Association and the highest ranking electoral district association agent in northern Saskatchewan for the Green Party of Canada.  The federal Green Party and provincial Green Party aren’t involved in my civil rights cases.

I have more civil rights cases coming up and will keep you informed.  You ain’t seen nothing yet.  The advancement of liberty is more important than my popularity. 

Best regards,

Ashu M. G. Solo

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