WATERLOO, QC: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that a constitutional challenge has been filed against the municipal government of Waterloo, Quebec, for violating freedom of religion. The city ticketed a member of the religious charity Groupe Jaspe for going door-to-door, talking about suicide prevention. Quebec case law upholds freedom of religion and the right of people to share their message door-to-door.
Justice Centre lawyers served the constitutional challenge to the Attorney Generals of Québec and Canada respectively on Wednesday, October 30.
Groupe Jaspe, a religious charitable organization, was founded in 1999 by Claude Tremblay after his son committed suicide. In an effort to “break isolation and promote interviews with suicidal and desperate people,” Mr. Tremblay set out to knock on every door in Quebec’s 1,000 cities and towns. Today, with the help of 70 volunteers, Groupe Jaspe has connected with the residents of 50 cities and 771 villages with a powerful message about the value of life.
In 2015, Claude Tremblay was ticketed for soliciting without a permit while canvassing in a village – a violation of municipal bylaws. A municipal court declared the bylaws were unenforceable because Mr. Tremblay enjoyed a constitutional right to freedom of religion, as described in a 2003 Quebec Court of Appeal decision, Blainville (Ville) c. Beauchemin, 2003.
In 1996, the City of Blainville passed a bylaw requiring door-to-door salespeople to secure a $100 permit before canvassing people at home. Police ticketed 17 Jehovah’s Witnesses for violating the bylaw. The religious group fought back, and, in 2001, won their case. An Appeal Court upheld the lower court ruling in 2003. Respected Judge Dalphond noted that equating Jehovah’s Witnesses with salespeople was insulting to the religion. He wrote that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were preforming a community service and the literature they offered is serious, addressing subjects such as drugs, alcoholism and divorce.
Since the 2015 ruling in Mr. Tremblay’s ticket case, Groupe Jaspe has not been ticketed for “soliciting without a permit” because various municipalities have acknowledged the right to religious freedom through the case law arising from the 2003 Blainville case.
Recently, however, one of the organization’s 70 volunteers was issued a ticket for soliciting without a permit in Waterloo, a city of 5,000 in the province’s Eastern Townships between Montreal and Sherbrooke. The city’s prosecutor has decided to proceed with the charge on the grounds that the law has changed since the province adopted the Loi sur la Laicité de l’État and a body of subsequent case law.
The Loi sur la Laicité de l’État, known in English formally as An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State but sometimes referred to as Quebec’s “secularism law,” was passed in 2019. It establishes “the separation of state and religion, the state’s religious neutrality, the equality of all citizens and freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.” It has stirred controversy because it led to a prohibition against civil servants wearing religious symbols at work.
We anticipate that this matter will go to trial at the City of Waterloo Courthouse on November 18, 2024.
Oliver Séguin, lawyer for Groupe Jaspe, stated, “Since the Loi sur la Laïcité de l’État came into force, religious groups have felt that their rights were being flouted by the public authorities, but always in an unofficial manner. For the first time, a municipal body seems to be invoking the Loi sur la Laïcité de l’Étatformally to justify the degradation of rights of a religious nature. If the Court were to rule in its favour, it would seriously infringe the religious freedoms of all Quebecers.”
