Saskatoon city councillors will talk about whether to keep the phrase “Merry Christmas” on the digital message boards of city transit buses on Monday.
All this after one person complained. the complaint was made by Ashu Solo, who says the practice pushes Christian beliefs.
"If it can't display messages for all religions,” Solo told CTV, “it should display messages for no religions." Earlier this year Solo also complained about a prayer at a volunteer appreciation event put on by the City of Saskatoon.
For now, the message will stay on city buses until councillors have their discussion. Several have said there doesn’t seem to be much appetite to drop it.
“It wasn’t our intention in any of our messaging to ever be offensive,” said city manager Murray Totland.
When the story broke on Friday it generated a lot of talk on social media sites and call-in radio shows. Many people seem to favor keeping the message.
"I think that sucks,” Rachelle Hilton told CTV. “I have nieces in school and they can't even dress up on Halloween - it's orange and black day. They don't get to do Christmas things because someone might get offended. I don't think that's right."
Others believe sticking with the phrase “happy holidays” is a better option.
Solo says he has received a death threat, and has been advised by police now to show his face on camera.
“I thought there would be a little bit of a backlash, but not to this extent.” Solo says if the city doesn’t change the message, he will take his complaint to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
Councillors are scheduled to discuss transit message boards at an executive committee meeting Monday afternoon.
