RELIGIOUS CONFUSION
After a weekend of confusion and tickets, province relaxes limitations
Two members of the Hasidic community enter the rear entrance of a synagogue in Outremont on Sunday. Police intervened there Saturday to break up a gathering they thought was illegal. Susan Schwartz explains what happened.
After a weekend marked by confusion about how many people are permitted in houses of worship and a string of interventions by Montreal police breaking up gatherings in several of them on Friday and Saturday, the government issued a statement Sunday evening reversing an earlier interpretation of the decree limiting the maximum to 10.
In buildings with more than one separate entrance and more than one separate zone, a maximum of 10 people is permitted to gather in each zone, Dr. David Kaiser, the physician responsible for environmental health at Montreal's public health department, said in an email to police authorities and religious leaders, among others.
The zones must be non-contiguous, “with completely distinct entrances to the outside,” he said. Multiple rooms within a building with a common entrance cannot be used, he said, and single rooms may not be subdivided into multiple zones.
The statement walks back one by Kaiser barely 24 hours earlier in which he said that a maximum of 10 people — period — are permitted in a house of worship at any given time. “There is no possibility of having multiple groups in a house of worship at the same time, even if there are multiple rooms or entrances,” he wrote.
Police intervened in 11 places Saturday afternoon and evening for alleged breaches of public health regulations and at three places of worship Saturday morning to break up gatherings exceeding the 10-person limit.
Infractions were observed at nine locations with a total of 223 people identified as contravening health orders, said police spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils; she said the organization responsible for each site would be the subject of a report submitted to Quebec's office of criminal prosecutions (DPCP).
Fifteen tickets for illegal interior gathering were also issued. Fines for violations of public health order start at $1,500 and can rise to $6,000.
Places of worship were closed in early January when the government announced lockdown measures, including a curfew, and were scheduled to remain closed until at least Feb. 8, except for funerals.
Soon after, the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, the Jewish Hasidic Council of Quebec and several other ultra- Orthodox Jewish congregations sent a lawyer's letter to the Legault government, urging it to reconsider its ban on gatherings in synagogues and other places of worship during the latest lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, Quebec's health department amended the rules governing places of worship during the lockdown, easing rules to allow a maximum of 10 people to gather. But a measure of confusion appeared to reign since the decree was amended, with the Hasidic community believing that, as long as each synagogue has a separate entrance, they should be permitted 10 people per room for prayer services — and police saying that the maximum was 10.
Before the most recent lockdown and curfew measures came into effect earlier this month, the maximum in houses of worship was 25 — but in buildings with more than one separate entrance and more than one separate zone, a maximum of 25 worshippers were permitted in each zone.