There is a lack of synagogues in Outremont. This shortage of places of worship is also observed in other boroughs, due to overly restrictive regulations restricting freedom of religion. This is the conclusion of a report commissioned by the borough backed by the mountain from a sociologist of religions from UQAM, which will be unveiled at a conference on Zoom Thursday evening.
“Zoning regulations on places of worship do not understand their importance in the life of a minority community,” explains Frédéric Dejean, from whom the Projet Montréal administration in Outremont commissioned the report. “These are places for teaching and socializing too. They are not just places of prayer. ”
Outremont’s Hasidic synagogues have been in the headlines for a long time. A referendum in 2016 endorsed a regulation banning new places of worship on rue Bernard. They were already prohibited on Laurier and Van Horne avenues, as well as on residential streets.
A small sector in the northeast of the district had been reserved for new places of worship, but it was deemed impracticable by the Hasidics, who by religious obligation cannot drive their car on Saturday, the Sabbath day.
religious freedom
Such motives are part of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion, according to Dejean, who did some 30 interviews with Hasidics and non-Hasidics for his report.
“There has never been a judgment specifically on this requirement to have a place of worship within walking distance. But in a judgment on an evangelical church in the north of Montreal, the judge considered that the presence of an evangelical church in another borough was sufficient to serve the population. But he made it clear, as if he had the Hasidics in mind, that if a religious group were required to walk to their place of worship, the decision might have been different. ”
In Israel, in some Hasidic neighborhoods, car traffic is prohibited on Saturdays and women wearing clothes deemed indecent are sometimes harassed. Could these requirements also be protected by freedom of religion?
“Certain Hasidics from Outremont do not really like women in bikinis in parks,” replies Mr. Dejean. But they know that they live in a plural society, that they have to make compromises. And there are other individual rights that conflict with freedom of religion in this case. Having said that, Hasidics don’t like pedestrian zones in Outremont very much, because they feel that it doesn’t do them any good, that they are intended for people who go to restaurants and to the theater. ”
Listen to Frédéric Dejean’s presentation on the lack of synagogues in Outremont, November 25, at 7 p.m.
LISTEN to the presentation of sociologist Frédéric Dejean