The lawyer for a BC pastor says his client will sue the Quebec government for canceling his client’s building rental..Art Lucier, a Métis pastor with Kelowna's Harvest Ministries International, booked the Quebec City Convention Centre for a 10--day event and only discovered its cancellation through a CBC article..The event, called “Battle for Canada — Preparing the Way” was slated for June 23 to July 2 as a time of “Spirit-led worship, corporate intercession, spoken truths, and glory encounters." The venue could have hosted 1,000 people at a time. .A tab on the event page linked to the “Canadian Firewall,” a website to mobilize prayer on national issues, including abortion. As a result Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx prevailed on the government venue to cancel the contract with Lucier’s church, which was signed in February..Neither the venue nor the government contacted Lucier, but Radio-Canada broke the story in a June 2 report. The article said the event caused “great discomfort” to the cabinet..“Our government is resolutely pro-choice. And it is a subject that has a broad consensus in Quebec,” Proulx told Radio-Canada by email..In an interview with the Western Standard, Lucier’s lawyer Samuel Bachand said his client will seek compensation in the courts..“You may expect a civil lawsuit to be filed by the end of June, claiming compensatory and punitive damages, constitutional declarations and other remedies,” wrote Bachand..On June 2, Quebec City Convention Centre CEO Pierre-Michel Bouchard told Radio-Canada, “Freedom of expression is the rule. In this case, as a Crown corporation, we think it is our role to adhere to certain values that the government promotes.”.He said two other events had been canceled in recent years, one because the client would not translate documents into French, and the other because it was about cannabis..Bachand said the case attracted substantial interest..“I have noticed media and political figures are talking about ‘balises’, or objective criteria, to deal with similar situations on a case-by-case basis in the future… The law already provides very clear answers: the fundamental principles of the state are written in the Québec Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and in other constitutional and quasi-constitutional instruments and case law,” Bachand said..“If they are not happy with the Constitution, they can always try to have it amended ... unless they come up with another one of those notwithstanding clauses which they seem to be very fond of.”.A petition on CitizenGo by Campagne Quebec-Vie collected 5,000 signatures to deliver to Minister Proulx. It said she “decided in a completely authoritarian way that pro-life people should automatically be excluded from the public square in Quebec” and called for the premier to reverse the decision “if only to be consistent with his commitment to freedom of expression.”.“We are outraged the government is now ordering the cancellation of events that convey opinions it does not like, based on criteria that are vague and arbitrary,” reads the petition..Bachand said despite Lucier’s “diligence and best efforts,” he could not find a new venue for the event. .“From the moment Minister Proulx made public statements and CEO Bouchard broke the contract on June 2, a lot of irreparable harm was caused. Minister Proulx's dog-whistling seems to have worked,” Bachand said..“Holding the event as planned, on June 23 to July 2, has been made impossible due to the minister's and the Centre des Congrès actions. My client will try to organize an event, in some form, at a later date.”.The Revival Reformation Alliance, the banner under which Lucier promoted Battle for Canada, recently announced a different event for June 30 to July 2: a big tent worship festival at Lighthouse Church in Stony Plain, AB.
