News

By Hilary White

HALIFAX, October 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the province’s two largest grocery store chains that have been manoeuvring to avoid the restrictions on Sunday shopping.

With the ruling, Premier Rodney MacDonald has agreed to dump the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act, leaving only Prince Edward Island as the last Canadian hold-out observing a Christian day of rest.

Nova Scotia tried earlier this year to close a loophole in the law that allowed smaller grocery retailers to remain open seven days a week which led to the suit.

The suit was brought by the Atlantic Superstore and Sobeys, two of the largest businesses in the province. Small retailers, restaurants and bookstores are allowed to remain open on Sundays while department stores and larger groceries had to give their employees the day off.

Citing “discrimination” against the grocery chains, MacDonald said the Court ruling means “that retail stores will not be restricted by the government.” Premier MacDonald said, “Retail stores of all types may choose to open on Sundays and other holidays, with the exception of Remembrance Day.”

The tiny, and mostly rural Atlantic province of Prince Edward Island allows retailers to remain open on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

The Nova Scotia government argued in court that the laws were in place to protect workers. Although the numbers are falling, Nova Scotia still has one of Canada’s highest regional rates of Church attendance and a referendum showed that the majority of Nova Scotians still want their day of rest. The large grocery store chains, however, have led the charge against the law, at first by reconfiguring their stores on Sundays into separate businesses small enough to be exempt from the Sunday shopping regulations.

The detrimental effects of having retail stores and restaurants open seven days a week is not restricted only to those who have to work on Sundays.

An American study published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that when large stores and malls are open on Sundays, church-goers begin to skip attendance and significantly increase their consumption of drugs and alcohol.

The report, titled “The Church vs. the Mall: What Happens When Religion Faces Increased Secular Competition?” said, “The gap in heavy drinking between religious and non religious individuals falls by about half after the laws are repealed.”

The Washington Post reported that the greatest behaviour change was found in those who had been the most faithful attendees of religious services. “After the laws are repealed [church attendance] falls to 32 percent” from about 37 percent while the law was in place. That change was “not driven by declines in religiosity prior to the law change.”

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
  Sunday Shopping Triggers Increase in Recreational Drug, Alcohol Use among Faithful: Study
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