Sorry for the delay in posting these translations. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.
Love, Scully
La Presse - Montreal - Thursday, August 28, 2003
Jehovah's Witnesses can go door-to-door in Blainville
City By-Law ruled discriminatory by the Court of AppealBy Sophie Allard
Jehovah's Witnesses can finally knock on the doors of Blainville without fear. Yesterday the Court of Appeal rejected the city's appeal regarding its by-law, which in this instance, was judged as "a serious infringement on religious freedom."
According to the 1996 amendments to Blainville's municipal by-law on solicitation, which had up till then been aimed solely at businesses, Jehovah's Witnesses were required to obtain a permit at a cost of $100 each which allowed them to canvass homes for two months per year, from 9am until 7:30pm on weekdays only.
"In a free and democratic society, it does not belong to municipal counsel to play Big Brother in deciding who the citizens will receive to their homes on evenings and weekends! To take away the possibility of participating in an exchange of ideas is the equivalent of denying that they have the capacity for self-determination, the principle which is the foundation of democracy," wrote Judge Pierre Dalphond.
Following the example of the Superior Court, the Court of Appeal declared the by-law regarding door-to-door did not apply with regard to the group. Even though the objective of Blainville to "see to the peace and quiet of the citizens," the city infringed "on the religious freedoms of Jehovah's Witnesses, and on the freedom of expression of the residents of Blainville." The infringements were considered to be "grossly out of proportion to the reports of disturbances which could result from a visit by Jehovah's Witnesses one weekend every four months," stated the judgement.
Citing a decision by the Supreme Court, the judge indicated that the concept of freedom of religion is defined by the individual's "right to declare their religious beliefs and practices in worship or by their teaching and propagation." The method of doing so has nothing to do with commerce, maintained the judge. "Why then attach the label of itinerant salespeople to Jehovah's Witnesses, but not to the activities of the Boy Scouts? I can only see an arbitrary and unequal position," he wrote.
Jehovah's Witnesses in the Sainte-Thérèse congregation, where 17 members had been ticketed in 1997, said they were very happy about this victory. "This is a large step for freedom of expression," said Léonce Crépeault, spokesman for the group. "Blainville is the only city in Quebec that has a discriminatory attitude toward Jehovah's Witnesses who, otherwise, are not doing anything but transmitting, to those who want them, the teachings of the Bible."
Even though they came out winning this judicial battle, Jehovah's Witnesses - who did not stop their preaching activity while awaiting the verdict to be rendered - were not, however, awarded any punitive damages from the Mayor of Blainville, Pierre Gingras. The Court was unable to establish a causal relationship between the actions of the Mayor and the monetary damages submitted. Contrary to what the group had requested, the Court refused but also declared "that [Blainville's] council acted in bad faith and with the intention to discriminate."
The municipality of Blainville did not wish to comment on the judgement, whereas telephone calls to their lawyer by La Presse were not returned.
La Presse - Montreal - Thursday, August 28, 2003(apologies for the clunky formatting... it doesn't want to do what I am trying to tell it to do. )
Decreasing Numbers in Quebec
By Myriam Berthelet
Times are hard for Jehovah's Witnesses. Between 1991 and 2001, 12% of their members have left. The city of Blainville tried to restrict their door-to-door activity, and the group is taking heat from former members who accuse them of negligence in cases of sexual assault.
In Quebec, in 2001, 29,040 people said they belonged to Jehovah's Witnesses, which is about 4000 less that what was reported in the 1991 census. For Léonce Crépault, spokesman for the Witnesses, these reports are inexplicable. "Statistics Canada usually reports more members than we actually have! According to our own figures, the number of members is stable, at around 22,000, not 29,000! In Quebec, the movement is very vigorous. We have many baptisms each year."
At Info Sect as well, they were surprised at this decrease in numbers. According to Mike Kropveld, director general of the organization, this decrease in popularity could be due to, among other factors, recent accusations of negligence in sexual assault cases that have given Jehovah's Witnesses bad publicity. An Ontario judge awarded $5000 in damages to Victoria Boer, who accused the Witnesses of not providing her with moral support when she reported her father's abuse to them. She was abused by him between the ages of 11 to 14 and had asked for $700,000 in damages from the church.
Peter Gavin spent time in jail for sexual assault that was revealed by Mike Moss, to whom he was teaching the Bible. The cases of Paul Berry and Daniel Fitzwater, two Americans who were found guilty of sexual assaults against children, have also shaken public opinion. Numerous lawsuits have been launched in California against Jehovah's Witnesses for crimes of a sexual nature, which have been equally damaging.
Léonce Crépeault considers these to be marginal phenomena that must not be highlighted. "I will not deny that it is possible that sexual assaults occur. This happens in all religions," he said. "But this does not reflect on the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. When these things happen, we report them to the authorities."
Recruitment seems to have been fruitful at the last international convention of Jehovah's Witnesses, which took place at the Olympic Stadium this past June 26-29. Close to 35,000 members, from Canada, the United States and several francophone countries gathered there. "People join the ranks of these groups mainly during transitional periods of their lives, when they have existential questions," explains Mike Kropveld. "They need to have something to believe in, to belong to a group. They need to simplify a life that has become too complex."
More Catholics
The last few years could be a source of growing insecurity in Canada since the Catholic church gained about 80,000 members between 1991 and 2001, after a surprising number of Quebeckers disowned the Catholic church following the quiet Revolution. Jean-Marie Yambayamba, director of Montreal's center for spirituality and religion, forsees that besides the following statistics making a statement that inflates the number of members, that they pick up members who have left one religious group or another. "Something has happened since 2001!" he said, referring to the traumatic events of September 11 in New York.
Like the Catholic church has not stopped as a result of sexual scandals, if the accounts of assaults had any real effect on the popularity of religious groups, the membership of the Catholic faith should also become less numerous. For Mike Kropveld, the rise in the number of Catholics is only temporary. "The traditional churches have provoked dissatisfaction for their structure and their actions. The privileged few have the right of direct interpretation [from God], similar to how the Jehovah's Witnesses are, who tell them exactly what they must or must not do."
Reassuring for some, the constraints will become a nightmare for others. Even if Léonce Crépault makes the statement that people are free to leave whenever they wish, he admits just the same that a mother who decides to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses will no longer be allowed to see her own children.
