Christian suicide prevention group files constitutional challenge against Quebec town

A Quebec religious group led by a man who lost his son to suicide has filed a constitutional challenge after the city of Waterloo was fined for going door-to-door to share its message about suicide prevention.

Groupe Jaspe, a Christian group based in Magog, Que., received two tickets worth more than $900, not including fees, in February for violating the city charter that requires non-profit groups to obtain a permit to “sell, collect or solicit at the municipality.” “

But instead of paying for the tickets, Claude Tremblay, the group’s president and founder, is taking the city to court, which he says is a violation of his Charter rights.

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

The indictment alleges that the regulations’ provisions “constitute a non-negligible obstacle to the practice of door-to-door searches” and thus violate the group’s freedom of religion and expression as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The City of Waterloo was not immediately available for comment.

Tremblay’s son died by suicide in 1997. Tremblay said that since the group was founded in 1999, it has gone door to door with volunteers to prevent others from taking their lives.

“I’ve been visiting homes for 24 years and it’s 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 having faith in God and letting Him. help them.

Tremblay said he brings his Christian approach to 900 villages, 73 cities and 88 Indigenous communities in Canada.

Tremblay says his group has received numerous fines over the past two decades, but none since winning a similar case on religious freedom grounds in a different municipality in 2015.

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

He said he expects the city to enforce Quebec’s secularism laws despite previous court rulings, including one in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were punished in Blainville, Que., in 2001.

“The City of Waterloo Prosecutor has already indicated that he will bring up the fact that things have changed … since 2001, when the Court of Appeals decision was made in Blainville,” Séguin said. “And one of the things that has changed is Quebec’s secularism laws.”