Anti-suicide religious group files constitutional challenge against Waterloo, Que.

By Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press on November 2, 2024.

MONTREAL – A Quebec religious group has filed a constitutional challenge against the municipality of Waterloo after it ticketed one of its members for going door-to-door to share its message about suicide prevention.

Groupe Jaspe, a Christian group based in Magog, Que., received two tickets in February worth several hundred dollars for violating a municipal bylaw requiring non-profit groups to obtain a permit for “selling, collecting or soliciting.”

The group says the bylaw infringes on its freedom of religion and expression as enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Claude Tremblay, the group’s founder, lost his son to suicide and says it is his religious duty to go door-to-door to help prevent others from taking their lives.

A lawyer representing Groupe Jaspe says it hasn’t received tickets since it won a similar battle in 2015 in another Quebec municipality on the grounds of religious freedom, but in the current battle the municipality of Waterloo is invoking Quebec’s secularism laws.

The municipality of Waterloo was not immediately available for comment.

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

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