Quebec Jehovah's Witness challenges bylaw

By Idella Sturino

MONTREAL (CUP) — Jehovah's Witnesses in a Montreal suburb can once again breathe easy — at least for now.

Atem a ent reached in cnet uperior ae Nov. 21 <r ~ religious pand thetowno Bialevilleneevents Gibenenich- pality from enforcing its anti- solicitation bylaw against the

roup. At the sam. time,

ehovah’s Witnesses can only knock on their neighbours’ doors at certain hours of the day.

The agreement comes after Blainville police, in re- sponse to residents complaints, began enforcing the bylaw three weeks ago. As a result, 17 pecpie — including an 85- year old grandmother have been handed $250 fines for performing their door-to-door ministry without a permit or outside of weekday business hours.

The anti-solicitation by- law, which regulates all forms of door-to-door solicitation, has

imarily been enforced against ehovah’s Witnesses.

According to Blainville police chief Albert Stringer, that s because the only com-

laints police have received ns been about the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who some residents say knock on people’s doors too early on weekend morn- ings.

“We enforce the bylaw and respond to calls from citi- zens, but we re not chasing after anybody,” Stringer says, insisting that if he were to re- ceive a complaint about the Girl Scouts, he would enforce the bylaw in the same way.

Last week, a group of Jehovah s Witnesses decided to seek an immediate injunc- tion against the bylaw and asked the Quebec Superior Court to quash it.

“We feel thatthis bylaw was enacted in bad faith and with the intent to stop our work, to discriminate and control us

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in our ministry,” Alain Beauchemin, regional spokes- person for the Jehovah's Wit- nesses in Quebec, said.

But Blainville mayor Pierre Gingras denies that the bylaw was meant to single out Jehovah's Witnesses. “We're not targeting one religious group,” Gingras told the Mon- treal Gazette last week.

Still, Beauchemin says the bylaw isa veiled attempt to curb Jehovah's Witnesses activity because it lists visits of a religious nature among the forms of solicitation to be regu- lated. According to Beauchemin, everyone Cibws it’s the Jehovah's Witnesses who make door-to-door reli- gious visits, which are an inte- gral part of their religious prac- tice.

“It’s part and parcel of ourreligion,” Beauchemin said,

inting to passages in the Bi-

le which describe how Jesus

and his apostles traveled door to door to preach the gospel.

Whether or not the by- law s intent is to prevent Jehovah s Witnesses from performing their door-to-door ministry, the group argues it is unconstitutional, preventing them from practicing their re- ligion and infringing on their freedom of expression, as en- shrined in the Canadian and Quebec Charters of Rights and Freedoms.

At last Fridays hearing, the Quebec Superior Court denied the group an immediate injunction against the bylaw, but ruled that it cannot be in- voked against Jehovah’s Wit- nesses until a Dec. 12 hearing when the court will decide how

to proceed.

The group s lawyer, Glen Howe, is confident that the battle against the bylaw will be successful.

“[The city] is trying to take away rights that have, al- ready been given,” he said.

Howe adds that the courts have consistently ruled that the rights and freedoms

rotected in the Charter be- ong to everyone and are a two-way street. Jehovah s Witnesses have the right to preach door-to-door, and indi- viduals have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to

listen, he says.

Aside from seeking the bylaw quashed, the group also plans to seek punitive dam- ages from Gingras. Each mem- ber will seek $25,000 in dam- ages because they believe the bylaw was implemented in bad faith and in direct contradic- tion of clear Supreme Court rulings which upheld the con- stitutional rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“We want to send a strong message that if, as a duly elected official, you use your democratic power to force minorities to do some- thing wrong and against the Charter, you have to pay the price,” Beauchemin said.

The group has several important precedents on its side, including a 1959 case in which the court ordered former Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis to pay over $50,000 in damages to restaurateur Ron Carelli. Carelli had posted bail for several Jehovah’s Wit- nesses and, in return, had his liquor license revoked.

Ironically, comparisons between the Blainville bylaw and the Duplessis-era of Que- oe a known for its in- tolerance of minori have been made G Sets observers.

Beauchemin notes that while young members of the community are surprised by

the current conflict in Blainville, the older generation remembers other cases of what say is discrimination against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Quebec.

There are currently about 35,000 Jehovah s Wit- nesses in the province, most of them in the greater Montreal area.

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