Fredericton — New Brunswick’s Capital City will be making a minor –yet monumental– change to how it commences city council meetings. Effective immediately, there will be no prayer to begin each meeting, nor will  the much-celebrated Black Mass follow each meeting in the caverns beneath City Hall. These changes are the result of a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling which stated that prayer at municipal council meetings “infringes on freedom of conscience and religion.”

“It doesn’t matter if we are praying to God or to Satan, ” Councillor Stan Coldwater stated in a break from council proceedings. “As the representatives of the city’s citizens, we have always covered our bases that way.  Now, with no opening prayer or Black Mass,  we are apt to piss off the guy upstairs and the guy downstairs at the same time.

However, the developing situation is not as clear-cut as it seems. Some of the younger and more technically-adept city council members have taken to technology to get around the Supreme Court ruling. At the beginning of the last council meeting, several of the attendants were seen texting each other with messages meant to embody the long-standing tradition.  The exchanges were brief yet poignant, with messages such as “Go for God!” and “Satan Rules!”

It is unclear as this story goes to press whether the city counsel will condone this behavior or risk angering both Heaven and Hell in adhering to the recent ruling.