O come all ye faithful — faithfully vaccinated, that is

National Post, 17 December 2021

Quebec has tightened its pandemic protocols and, in doing so, has crossed a critical line in relation to religious liberty.

Should the state regulate who can exercise the fundamental freedom of religious liberty, in particular the right to worship God?

Quebec has tightened its pandemic protocols and, in doing so, has crossed a critical line in relation to religious liberty. The government’s website states that as of Monday, “the vaccination passport will be required in places of worship.”

This is in contrast with the previous rule, in which, “Vaccination passports (were) not necessary to attend places of worship, unless the number of people present exceeds 250 inside or 500 outside.”

With this rule change, the Quebec government is moving into new territory. No longer is it regulating how many people can come to church, as all provinces have throughout the pandemic, or how they are to be arranged (physical distancing and the like), but who can enter the house of God at all.

Pastors do not check baptismal certificates at the door. Now Quebec wants them to become a vaccine gendarmerie, demanding not a public confession of sins, but rather a display of vaccinated virtue.

That is an intolerable affront to religious liberty. Canadians — including the courts on the rare occasions that they have adjudicated on pandemic restrictions — have proven themselves remarkably accommodating of affronts to fundamental liberties.

For months on end, Canadians from outside the much-lauded “Atlantic bubble” were forbidden from visiting even their own homes, even if they were able to quarantine in rural settings where they could easily keep two kilometres, let alone two metres, distance from their nearest neighbour.

Hundreds of thousands of non-vaccinated employees have been threatened with dismissal, even if they work from home and live alone. After shelters closed and threw homeless people onto the streets, they became guilty of violating night-time curfews that restricted them to homes they did not have. The state has arrogated to itself the right to supervise the number of grandchildren that can visit grandma’s home for her birthday.

So we are accustomed to (enthusiastically) setting aside the fundamental liberties laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for the sake of not overwhelming our health-care system.

Given the popularity of our charter-exempt pandemic response, those who object to government over-reach find themselves without any of the protections the Constitution is supposed to offer to those who are victimized by such measures. Nevertheless, at least a vigorous objection should be registered when the very first of our fundamental freedoms — religious liberty — is bulldozed by public health authorities.

Unfortunately, it’s late in the day and precedents have already been set. Last year, the public health czar of British Columbia, Dr. Bonnie Henry, simply abolished religious liberty and the right to worship for several months. Church buildings could be used for, say, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, but worship was prohibited in the very same buildings, even with fewer people.

Yet the courts shrugged their shoulders about what they conceded was a violation of all the fundamental freedoms in the charter. B.C. public opinion was not particularly fussed, either.

Now Quebec is going a step further. It is regulating who may enter places of worship, in the same way it has regulated businesses, educational and recreational facilities. No vaccination, no entry. The difference is that watching hockey games or shopping for clothes are not fundamental rights.

To date, there have been differing regulations in Canada regarding social distancing and vaccination. In some jurisdictions, houses of worship that insist on vaccination may not have to socially distance, for example, while those that do not demand vaccine passports must continue distancing.

Quebec is proposing something more severe: the non-vaccinated may not be admitted at all. For example, the gargantuan St. Joseph’s Oratory, which could accommodate thousands people in its cavernous basilica, will have to say to the unvaccinated at Christmas Mass: no coming in for you in this room!

“O come all ye faithful,” goes the traditional opening carol of Midnight Mass. Quebec wants to rewrite it: “O come all ye vaccinated.” The faithful are now to be defined by fealty to the state.

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