The administrators of the Good News Chapel in Saint-Léonard have turned a deaf ear to the multiple orders of the Montreal public health authorities and refused to leave room for massive screening to curb the proliferation of COVID cases among their faithful . Failing to comply, this evangelical religious group, resistant to health measures, sees the risk of a closure hovering over its head.
As revealed The duty On Tuesday, dozens of people were infected, one is still in intensive care and two died of COVID-19 after attending the place of worship of the evangelist group Good News Chapel, which is located in Saint-Léonard.
Not only has this marginal group flouted health measures for months, meeting without masks or social distancing, but its spiritual leader, Steve Gesualdi, in his preaching urges the faithful to turn their backs on vaccines, to ban masks and health regulations. , all loosely associated with a sign of Revelation and the mark “of the beast”.
A letter obtained by The duty from a source who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals shows that the group has been summoned several times to comply with various orders from the Direction régionale de la santé publique de Montréal (DRSPM), which associates the outbreak in this place of worship to a “real threat to the health of the population”.
The group thus shunned an order of the DRSPM, issued on November 26, requiring that the complete list of visitors to the place of worship since the 1er November is communicated to him for tracing purposes. The religious sessions continued despite everything without masks or distancing, noted investigators dispatched to the site on November 28.
The leaders of the religious group also did not follow up on the order of Public Health to inform their faithful of the proposal to hold a massive screening at the place of worship, on December 4 and 5. The letter, signed on 1er December by the Director of Public Health of Montreal, the DD Mylène Drouin, finally orders the leaders to immediately limit access to the place of worship to only vaccinated people and brandishes between the lines the threat of closure.
Risks of dissemination
Contacted to verify the intentions of the DRSPM, Danny Raymond, spokesperson for the Direction de la santé publique de Montréal at the CIUSSS du Center-Sud-de-l’île-de-Montréal, corroborated the content of the letter sent there. a week ago to Pastor Gesualdi and let it be known that the Good News Chapel file was being followed “very closely”. Public health authorities do not rule out other measures, he insisted. “Any organization that does not respect the rules is exposed to very serious consequences. “
A report would have been made to Public Health when the first cases of infection were reported. It is following epidemiological investigations having linked these infections to the place of worship of the Good News Chapel that the Department of Public Health has increased the orders.
Several representatives of the community, both mayors and local deputies, were called upon to make the very controversial religious leader Steve Gesualdi, who manages the Good News Chapel, listen to reason.
Several members revolving around this community, which would number up to 800 faithful, also tried to alert the authorities. Jonathan Di Carlo, a former member of Good News Chapel, claims to have provided the police with evidence of breaches of sanitary measures, without noticing any consequences. If the police are struggling to crack down, it is because the pastoral body camouflages its attitudes, according to him. “As soon as they know the police are coming in, they signal everyone with walkie-talkies to put on masks. We play hiding. “
The impact of this outbreak goes beyond the community of believers, adds Mr. Di Carlo. “It’s not a religious culture in the community of Saint-Léonard. People come from really everywhere. I live in Beaconsfield, I have cousins who live in Pointe-Claire, others in Brossard, others in Repentigny. So an outbreak that happens to the church will spread all over the greater Montreal area. “
As soon as they know the police are coming in, they signal everyone with walkie-talkies to put on masks. We play hiding.
“Graduated” approach
Among the followers of the Good News Chapel Facebook page and some members of its board of directors are many devotees and pastors using various formulas to denounce vaccines, health measures and public health policies of governments. .
Places of worship have been called to order since the start of the pandemic, but closures have never been decreed, says the DRSPM. The City of Montreal Police Service (SPVM) in particular dispersed the faithful gathered in too large numbers in certain synagogues at the start of the pandemic, but these interventions sometimes caused a breakdown in relations with religious communities.
This is why the authorities are adopting a “graduated” and “harm reduction” approach, to prevent a closure from leading the faithful to withdraw to a clandestine place, or invite them to be silent and not be done. track down.
“Religious leaders have a big influence on certain communities. I do not understand that the vaccine passport is not compulsory in places of worship, whereas it is to go to the cinema or to the restaurant ”, deplores the Dr Joseph Dahine, from the Cité de la santé in Laval, who has already received the faithful seriously ill in intensive care.
Montreal public health authorities have already used a prescription to put an end to a “real threat”, in particular by closing the private seniors’ residence Herron, while in Quebec, the sports club Méga Fitness Gym and the karaoke bar Kirouac were closed following major outbreaks.