Quebec’s former tourism minister has been ordered to pay a Christian group $60,000 in damages after a judge ruled she violated the organization’s free speech rights when she cancelled their rally at the Quebec City Convention Centre.
Caroline Proulx defended her decision to cancel the event on June 2, 2023, because she said the group, which promoted anti-abortion content, espoused views that were against Quebec’s values.
However, Superior Court Justice Alain Trudel ruled on Friday that she exercised her power as Minister of Tourism in “an arbitrary and abusive manner” and that her decision “is not justified in a free and democratic society.”
The event was organized by Harvest Ministries International, a Christian organization based in British Columbia. “Faith, Fire, and Freedom” was scheduled to be held June 22 to July 2, 2023, and was intended to be the culminating event of a series of gatherings in cities across Quebec as part of the “Battle for Canada” movement, according to the judgment.
Organizers had expected about 1,200 participants per day.
As Minister of Tourism, Proulx was responsible for the Société du Centre des congrès de Québec (SCCQ). After she was asked by a Radio-Canada journalist to comment about the event in late May of 2023, she looked into the group by visiting its website, which said, among other things, that abortion has “made the mother’s womb the most dangerous place for a child in Canada. We must pray for the sanctity of life, and for an end to abortion in Canada!” the ruling stated.
h/t Doctor Congo