The Quebec state should not meddle in the practice of faith and certainly not restrict access to places of worship by imposing the vaccination passport, pleads a Baptist church, in the suburbs of Quebec, which is demanding in particular from the government $ 100,000 in punitive damages.
“Churches are sanctuaries for the people, not a government-run law enforcement agency,” Guillaume Boucher-Roy, the pastor of St. Augustine Baptist Church, said in a statement.
Because by imposing the vaccine passport – called by the German word “Impfausweis” in the procedure – the state has “regimented the clergy” in its action of systematic discrimination and harassment of unvaccinated people, he says.
However, the pastor “sincerely believes that the Holy Scriptures, like the most elementary charity, direct him to welcome people to the church without distinction”, is it written in a section of the procedure entitled “Law against charity and faith”.
” I’Impfausweis repugnant to his conscience. »
He believes the government should be held accountable for the “moral and spiritual suffering political leaders have inflicted on their flock” during the pandemic. The weekly gathering “is a central ritual in biblical Christianity,” the proceedings say. And for many believers, “Netflix series and yoga sessions in their living room” cannot satisfy their quest for spiritual meaning, added Mand Samuel Bachand, who drafted the lawsuit.
So far, challenges seeking to invalidate health measures in Quebec have all failed.
The police empties their church
The pastor mentions in the procedure a police intervention having taken place in his church on January 23, during which the agents burst into the middle of a religious ceremony and declared it “illegal assembly”.
The faithful were “identified” before being expelled, it is written.
The Legal Center for Constitutional Liberties, which has challenged many health measures in court since the start of the pandemic, is also behind this legal action.
This, filed on February 25, attacks the legality and constitutionality of government decrees in Quebec that set limits on the number of people who can go to mass, and also subsequently imposed on believers to prove that they are vaccinated before crossing the threshold of churches.
The goal is to have them declared invalid and illegal “in order to prevent further abuses from being committed” by the state, Mr.and Bachand.
The vaccination passport is no longer required in places of worship since February 21 and it will no longer be required in public places as of March 12.
But that does not change the reason for the legal action, argues the lawyer: this measure can be reactivated at any time.
This is why it is requested that all the decrees on this subject be invalidated for good and that a judge declare that they have violated many constitutional rights protected by the charters, including freedom of religion, association, the right to equality, to privacy and also to security of person and autonomy over one’s own body.
For these breaches of the Quebec and Canadian charters, punitive damages of $100,000 are being claimed from the Minister of Health and Social Services.
The damage has already been suffered, insists Mand Bachand, and violations of constitutional rights “deserve judicial sanction”.
If the primary purpose of the action is to overturn the executive orders, punitive damages will “send a signal to the government,” he says.