Quebec religious group dedicated to suicide prevention files constitutional challenge

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press, November 2, 2024

A Quebec religious group has filed a constitutional complaint against the Quebec municipality of Waterloo after it disciplined one of its members for going door-to-door sharing its message about suicide prevention. This file image shows the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms document. CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL — A Quebec religious group led by a man who lost his son to suicide has filed a constitutional complaint against the municipality of Waterloo after it was cited for going door-to-door to share its message about suicide prevention.

Groupe Jaspe, a Christian group based in Magog, Que., received two citations worth more than $900 in February on charges for violating a municipal bylaw requiring nonprofit groups to obtain a permit to “sell, collect or solicit business within the municipality.” “

But instead of paying the fines, Claude Tremblay, the group’s president and founder, is taking the municipality to court for what he claims is a violation of his Charter rights.

“The Constitution gives us the right to share our faith,” Tremblay said in an interview.

The lawsuit claims that the provisions of the regulations “constitute a significant obstacle to the practice of door-to-door canvassing” and therefore violate the group’s freedom of religion and expression as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Waterloo Borough officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Tremblay’s son died by suicide in 1997. Since founding the group in 1999, Tremblay says he has gone door-to-door with volunteers to prevent others from taking their own lives.

“I have been visiting homes for 24 years and this is the best way because people are in their homes. It’s easier for them to share,” he said, adding that he talks to people about putting their faith in God and letting Him help them.

Tremblay said he has brought his Christian approach to 900 villages, 73 towns and 88 Indigenous communities in Canada.

Tremblay says his group has received numerous tickets over the past two decades, but none since winning a similar court case in another municipality in 2015 over religious freedom.

Lawyer Olivier Séguin represents Groupe Jaspe and is working with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms in Quebec cases, which is sponsoring the challenge. He said the current battle could play out differently in court.

Despite previous court rulings, including a 2001 decision in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were fined in Blainville, Quebec, he said he expected municipal authorities to invoke Quebec’s secularism laws.

“The City of Waterloo prosecutor has already mentioned that he will raise the fact that since 2001, when the Blainville Court of Appeal judgment was handed down, ‘everything has changed,’” Séguin said. “One of the things that has changed is Quebec’s laws regarding secularism.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2024.

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