Montreal, February 10, 2019 - Members of the Bahá'í communities of the boroughs of Montréal, Baie-d'Urfé, Beaconsfield, Côte-Saint-Luc, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Dorval, Hampstead, Kirkland, Montreal West, Mount Royal, Pointe-Claire, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Senneville and Westmount, gathered at the Bahá'í Center to elect five delegates to attend the Canadian National Convention this year. This national annual summit, to be held in Toronto in late April 2019, will elect the national administrative institution of the Canadian Bahá'í Community, the National Spiritual Assembly.

The regional conventions have a dual function of electing delegates to attend the National Convention as well as offering constructive suggestions regarding the general administration of the Faith in the country. This Convention will serve as an intermediary for the exchange of ideas and the coordination of activities among the various elements that make up the Bahá'í Community. This important meeting is both "a challenge for the individual" and "a collective responsibility. "- " The regional conventions are not meant to be purely administrative. Their main and essential purpose is to enable delegates and friends together to have a deeper and broader view of the cause by enhancing the spirit of unity and sincere cooperation. "

In each electoral unit, the national administrative institution shall designate a local or regional institution responsible for organizing the regional convention and shall communicate to it the instructions relating to that organization.

Since the Bahá'í Faith has no clergy, it is to these elected institutions that authority is con
ferred, rather than to those who function as their members. Election of Local Spiritual Assemblies, Bahá'í Regional Councils and the National Spiritual Assembly is held annually by secret ballot, in a spirit of prayer and reflection, without any form of election propaganda or candidacy. Bahá'ís over the age of 21 can vote and be elected.

Although the Bahá'í Faith first appeared in Canada in 1898, it was in 1922 that the first Local Spiritual Assembly was formed in Montreal. The National Spiritual Assembly of Canada and the United States, an institution common to both countries, was elected for the first time in 1925. In 1948, Canada formed its own National Assembly, and the following year it was legally incorporated by a Federal Law. Beginning in 1973, a Spiritual Assembly was established in every provincial and territorial capital of Canada. There are now Local Assemblies in more than 200 locations across the country.