B.C. health officials are facing continued calls to lift the ban on worship services.
Riverside Calvary Chapel, Immanuel Covenant Reformed Church, and the Free Reformed Church of Chilliwack are waiting for their day in court March 1 to challenge the province’s health order banning worship services that they say goes against their rights and freedoms. But before that constitutional challenge could be heard in court, the government applied for a temporary injunction to force the churches to comply with the order.
On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, that injunction was dismissed. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Hinkson wrote in his decision that he had “reservations that an injunction alone, without enforcement by the B.C. Prosecution Service, would overcome the deeply held beliefs of the petitioners and their devotees.”
He said it’s up to government to enforce its own safety measures.
“To be clear, I am not condoning the petitioners’ conduct in contravention of the orders that they challenge.”
Now, those churches and their lawyers from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms are preparing to make their case before Hinkson at the beginning of next month.
Jay Cameron, JCCF litigation director, is looking forward to the hearing. The health orders “are not being run through the legislature, they’re not being reviewed afterwards as far as their impact on constitutional rights and freedoms or commerce or trade or social demographic issues like suicide and substance abuse,” he told CKNW radio.
“There’s no scrutiny. You essentially have one person making orders for the entire province, and there’s no review. That is one of the main concerns of the litigation. It’s not the only one, but the faster we get into court and somebody can take a look at this the better because the legislators are not taking a look at it.”
The JCCF and the people it represents are not the only organizations hoping to overturn the ban on worship services.
About 50 members of the Vancouver Island Christian Union (a multi-denominational group that includes Catholics) and the Vancouver Island Freedom Alliance held a joint protest outside the Ministry of Health offices in Victoria Dec. 12 with signs like “freedom is essential” and “no new normal.” There have been several small “freedom of assembly” rallies outside St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria and large groups of about 150-200 people praying weekly outside Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have written a joint letter to authorities saying “freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right” and that “restrictions placed upon its exercise must be reasonable and demonstrably justified.” They said the health order “does not appear to meet these criteria.”
The St. Thomas More Catholic Lawyers Guild of B.C. has also written a letter calling for the B.C. government to reconsider the ban on worship services. That was just before Christmas, and having received no response since, the guild is now going ahead with a formal legal request to ease up on the ban in time for Easter.
In support of the constitutional challenge in March, the Vancouver Island Christian Union is planning a rally Feb. 28 outside St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria. A demonstration is also expected March 1 outside the law courts in Vancouver as the hearings begin.
The B.C. ban on worship services was first introduced Nov. 19. It has been extended three times and is now in place indefinitely.
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