Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!geac!alias!chk
From: chk@alias.UUCP (C. Harald Koch)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Sunday shopping
Message-ID: <687@alias.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 89 16:46:25 GMT
References: <656@crk56.bnr.ca> <1989Dec20.122639.1563@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: chk@alias.UUCP (C. Harald Koch)
Distribution: ont
Organization: Alias Research Inc., Toronto, ON Canada
Lines: 27

[ Oh boy! Now we too have a 'debate', just like can.general! ]

In article <1989Dec20.122639.1563@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> jdd@db.toronto.edu (John DiMarco) writes:
>And then there's the religious factor. The predominant religion in Canada
>is Christianity, which holds (for the most part) Sunday as a day of rest.
>Keeping Sunday a day in which most people do not work seems to be the best
>way of accomodating the most people.

This is my biggest complaint about the Sunday shopping laws:

THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO BUSINESS ENFORCING RELIGION!

On the one hand we have a whole slate of laws ensuring that a person cannot
be discriminated against on the basis of religion (and a bunch of other
things). On the other hand, we have the government passing and enforcing a
law whose major basis is Christianity.

At least one other religion has a day of rest that is not Sunday: The Jewish
sabbath is from Friday at dusk to Saturday at dusk, I believe.

For religious reasons this large group of people is unable to shop Saturday,
and for legal reasons they are unable to shop Sunday. This is just an
example; I am sure there are other prominent religious groups with similar
problems.

Where is the solution?  Ban weekend shopping altogether? legalize Sunday
shopping?