QUEBEC CITY (LifeSiteNews) –– In a move being likened to “something out of a dystopian novel,” the pro-abortion provincial government of Quebec has banned a religious group from having an event at a public convention center because of the organization’s pro-life moral ethic.
Harvest Ministries International, which is based out of British Columbia, had planned to hold a religious, cultural, and artistic event called the “Battle for Canada,” at the province of Quebec’s “Centre des congrès de Quebec” from June 23 to July 2.
However, after the event was announced, earlier this month Quebec’s minister of tourism Caroline Proulx – with the full blessing of Quebec Premier François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) – told the convention center’s CEO to pull the plug on Harvest’s gathering due to its supposed “anti-abortion” theme.
Said Legault when asked by the press why he chose to back his minister’s canceling of the event, “We will not permit anti-abortion groups the ability to conduct big events in public bodies.”
As for Proulx, she rationalized the event being cancelled by claiming Harvest Ministries’ event “goes against a fundamental principle of Quebec.”
Quebec’s minister responsible for the status of women, Marine Biron, said about the cancellation, “We are a resolutely pro-choice government, and we have to be consistent.”
Harvest Ministries still plans on having the event but is looking for a private venue to hold it in.
As it stands now, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has said it will be Harvest Ministries International’s legal representation to fight the event ban.
Biron said that Harvest Ministries is allowed to hold the event in a private venue.
Lawyers: Ordeal sounds like something out of a ‘dystopian novel’
The JCCF in a press release last week said that the entire case “sounds like something out of a dystopian novel.”
“Minister Proulx and CEO Pierre-Michel Bouchard made no secret of the fact: their decision to cancel the contract was in response to the rally’s allegedly anti-abortion theme, which was said to contradict fundamental Québec principles,” wrote the group of lawyers.
The JCCF noted in a letter dated June 5, 2023, that Harvest Ministries’ lawyer gave “formal notice to the government to reinstate the contract by noon on 8 June and allow the rally to be held at the Québec convention center.”
“Even if the theme of the Rally were ‘anti-abortion’ (we deny it), your decision to ban my client from the Convention Centre – and from all similar provincial Crown properties – would be abusive, discriminatory and an attack on the fundamental freedoms of expression and religion, without a shred of reasonable justification,” reads the letter as translated from French.
“Yet you attached the label ‘anti-abortion’ to an event that was nothing of the sort. There were no so-called ‘anti-abortion’ speeches, performances, screenings or themes on the program.”
Harvest Ministries Pastor Art Lucier, as noted by the JCCF, estimates that the financial losses from cancelling the event outright would be $450,000.
“If the Québec government does not reverse its decision, we will quickly go to court and seek not only damages, but also punitive damages and constitutional redress… not to mention the millions of dollars that a potential class-action suit by those affected could cost,” he said.
“Everyone has the right to express their convictions and deeply held values, even if they are in the minority or unpopular. In Québec, as in the rest of Canada, state arbitrariness, censorship and discrimination have no place.”