Members of Montreal’s chassidic community are considering a court challenge of Outremont’s bylaw prohibiting new places of worship on Bernard Avenue on the grounds that it infringes on freedom of religion.
The bylaw, a source of acrimony between the Chassidim and the borough council for the past year, was upheld in a referendum on Nov. 20.
“We are quite serious about taking legal action,” said Alex Werzberger, one of two community leaders who last year hired prominent civil rights lawyer Julius Grey to send a letter to borough mayor Marie Cinq-Mars and the four councillors warning that they would take legal action if the bylaw was ever implemented.
The bylaw, which applies to all religions, was approved by a majority of the council after its first reading in November 2015. It also banned any new places of worship on another major commercial artery, Laurier Avenue. That part of the bylaw has been in force since September.
READ: BAN ON NEW PLACES OF WORSHIP UPHELD IN OUTREMONT
“We don’t see any other way out,” said Werzberger. “We have a big suspicion that they [the council] are now emboldened, and may go after something else. It could be the school buses or who knows what. We have to stop it.”
Werzberger said on Nov. 22 that a meeting with Grey was planned in the coming days. He admitted cost is a consideration. “This could be very expensive, especially if it goes to the Supreme Court,” he said.
Mindy Pollak, who is chassidic and the sole councillor to have voted against the bylaw, thinks the ban is a clear violation of fundamental rights and that the borough has exposed itself to a lawsuit.
In his Jan. 5 letter on behalf of Werzberger and Jacob Karmel, Grey stated that the rezoning does not take into account the needs of the chassidic community, which is growing at a faster rate than the rest of the population.
READ:CHASSIDIM MOBILIZING TO WIN OUTREMONT REFERENDUM
“It is clear that the regulation targets them directly, not with the goal of satisfying their needs, but with the goal of bullying them,” he wrote. “Furthermore, Outremont has an unfortunate history of strained relations with the community.”
Filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission is not an option Werzberger is considering as an alternative. “That can be really long term, and I’m not sure it has much teeth… What we need is a court judgment. If we win this in court, it can be used as a precedent for other things.”
The Chassidim did win one major court battle against the then-city of Outremont in 2001, when a Quebec Superior Court judge upheld the community’s right to have an eruv.
Meanwhile, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, whom the Chassidim have criticized for being silent on the issue, last week proposed the possibility of creating a zone for places of worship on a section of Van Horne Avenue. Outremont has had a ban on such places on that street, also a busy business thoroughfare, since 1999.
Coderre did not specify exactly what part of Van Horne, but he did mention the proximity of a future campus of the Université de Montréal on what is now the Canadian Pacific railyards, scheduled to be completed in 2019.
That’s near the area in the northeast corner of Outremont where the council has proposed restricting new places of worship, an idea the Chassidim have rejected because it is a 20- to 30-minute walk from where most of them live and smacks of “ghettoization.”
“It’s a place that would be interesting and be subject to consensus. A balance has to be found,” Coderre told Le Journal de Montréal.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish (CIJA) applauded the proposal.
“This discriminatory bylaw never should have been proposed in the first place,” said CIJA Quebec vice president Eta Yudin. “From proposal to referendum, it has only served to further stigmatize Outremont’s chassidic community. We are, however, encouraged that Mayor Coderre has now intervened and raised an alternative scenario that would potentially meet the growing needs of the chassidic community.”
Yudin said CIJA understands that the borough “legitimately” wishes to revitalize one of its main commercial districts, but has “failed to provide any evidence that places of worship have negative repercussions on business.”
She said borough mayor Cinq-Mars missed another opportunity to bring together the different communities of Outremont and instead “chose to stoke the flames of divisiveness and fear.”
Yudin noted that Luc Ferrandez, borough mayor of the neighbouring Plateau Mount Royal district, recently met with chassidic representatives and found a compromise that meets both their community’s needs and the borough’s urban planning goals.
“There is certainly nothing to prevent Outremont from finding a similar compromise that respects the rights of all its citizens,” Yudin said.
B’nai Brith Canada’s Montreal director, Harvey Levine, said his organization appreciates Coderre’s “gesture,” but warned it would require a zoning revision on Van Horne, which would only reopen an acrimonious debate.
B’nai Brith believes a legal challenge based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is viable and hopes the chassidic community will pursue it, Levine said.
He also criticized the Cinq-Mars administration for failing to make an “evidence-based” decision through direct consultation with the parties involved in this issue and instead “being influenced by a few people who come to council meetings and yell and shout…
“If the business owners think they will be adversely affected by [places of worship] interspersed among them, do the research, show the evidence.”