Topic: Canadian Militia
Sunday Parades
The Toronto Daily Mail; 12 May 1892
To the Editor of the Mail.
Sir,—Having a reverence for the Christian Sabbath I must protest against the military and other parades which make every Sunday a noisy holiday. Worst of all, this wrong is done in the name of religion.
About 99 per cent of the motive in these parades is vanity, the remainder may, perhaps, be attributed to religious devotion. Let the Highland regiment attend church in plain clothes and without the buglers, brass bands, and bagpipe accompaniment, and fifty thousand men, women, and children would not wait for hem along the streets or surge around St. Andrew's church a lawless mob, requiring a strong force of constables to keep them in order. I am afraid the Highland regiment couldn't muster a corporal's guard to attend church in such a commonplace way.
Our regulars of the Infantry school manage to attend the ordinary church services in groups at the different churches of their choice on Sunday mornings without any trumpeting and show, and without announcing in the papers the route they intend to take, to make a show of their religion—or themselves. This is how is should be.
I am not surprised that ministers of the W.F. Wilson type, whose chief end is their own glory, should apologize for Sunday parades while enjoying the patronage of the paraders, but we look for beter things from D.J. Macdonnell. Those of us who regard the Sabbath as God's day, the sanctity of which ought not to be violated in this unnecessary way, will say "Shame on the paraders," but louder, "Shame on the ministers who thus lend themselves to its desecration."
Yours, etc.
W.A. Skeans
Toronto, 10 May
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