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Quebec’s Campaign of Persecution Suffers Another Stunning Blow

THE history-making judgment of the supreme court of Canada which held that Jehovah’s witnesses were not guilty of seditious libel in the Province of Quebec (Awake! March 8, 1951), and the scathing denunciation of Quebec mob violence and legal proceedings, which went with the judgment, were a terrific blow to the arrogant pretensions of the Roman Hierarchy in that country. The veil had been torn aside from the medieval conditions that exist where she is in control. This up-to-date protecting of liberty did not set well with the philosophy of oppression and the totalitarian stultifying of thought which are part of the Roman Catholic system.

In a gesture of defiance, Catholic spokesmen and officials stated they simply were not going to follow the judgment of the supreme court but, secure in their Quebec majority, would feel entitled to continue prosecuting Jehovah’s witnesses, law or no law. The French-language newspaper L’Action Catholique, which customarily speaks with the voice of the church, urged that the judgment be ignored, saying: “Since the majority in favour of the acquittal was only one [the judges of the supreme court divided five to four] it appears to us that the provincial and municipal authorities need not feel obliged to free the hundred other witnesses detained under the same charge. . . . French Catholic Quebec hasn’t the same concept of liberty as the other ethnic element [How true!] . . . For the Protestants, it is freedom of choice that makes the law; for the Catholics it is quite different. The Protestants are not offended by insults to their religion, but the Catholics, thank God! are much more sensitive on this point.”

In line with the advice of L’Action Catholique, Mr. Antoine Rivard, solicitor-general of the Province of Quebec, issued a statement that in spite of a decision by the supreme court of Canada holding Jehovah’s witnesses to be not seditious he would nonetheless continue to prosecute them on this charge. The Montreal Gazette, January 6, 1951, said: “Court proceedings against some 100 members of the Jehovah’s witnesses in the province charged with seditious libel will be carried out despite a recent ruling of the supreme court of Canada granting an acquittal to one convicted, Antoine Rivard, K.C., solicitor-general, declared last night . . . ‘The decision’, said Mr. Rivard, ‘is to carry on with the cases’ . . . In view of Mr. Rivard’s statement it is expected that cases on court rolls will be dealt with as soon as possible.”

The Department of the Attorney General had treated the Boucher case in the supreme court as a test case—till it went against them. But now they wanted to test all the others too.

The Catholic Church is always eager to accuse Jehovah’s witnesses of showing disrespect for duly constituted authority. Apparently it is only wrong to disagree with Roman Catholic authorities, because the solicitor general and L’Action Catholique certainly did not hesitate to demonstrate their open disregard for the decision of the duly constituted supreme court of Canada. The judgment of the highest court is binding, no matter how many judges decide it, as L’Action was later to discover.

Some of the other arguments of this organ of the Roman Church are also of interest. It says that freedom of choice makes law for the Protestants only. Complaint is also made about insults to the Catholic religion. The supreme court simply said that Jehovah’s witnesses could not be prevented from condemning mob violence (as sponsored by Quebec Catholics) and priest interference with administration of justice. Surely L’Action does not feel its religion is insulted by denunciation of mob violence. Or does it pretend that rioting is a sacred part of its faith? At least it is an interesting argument!

The Montreal Gazette “expected the cases on court rolls will be dealt with as soon as possible”. Nothing could have been farther from the facts. After more than six months, the attorney general has not proceeded with a single one of the hundred-odd cases pending, despite the fact that counsel for Jehovah’s witnesses have pleaded with judges and prosecutors to proceed to trial.

THE CROWNING BLOW

All the grandiose but meaningless declarations on the part of the prosecutors received a further stunning setback through a decision of the Quebec court of appeal which acquitted another of Jehovah’s witnesses, Renee Ouellette, on another seditious libel charge. The provincial court accepted and followed the Supreme Court decision in the Boucher case (Awake! March 8, 1951). This conviction had been entered January 20, 1948, and the appeal had been argued in February, 1949, but the provincial court of appeal had awaited the ruling of the supreme court before giving judgment.

Many eyes were on this pending appeal. Would the provincial court accept the ruling of the supreme court, or the arguments of L’Action Catholique? Would its judgment leave the door open for Mr. Rivard to make good his threats to continue the prosecutions?

The hopes of Quebec’s persecutors and prosecutors were extinguished on March 30, 1951, when their own Quebec court of appeal held one of Jehovah’s witnesses not guilty of sedition. The decision was given reluctantly, under protest and with very bad grace, as the Quebec court could not resist saying that it did not agree with the decision of the supreme court freeing Jehovah’s witnesses, but felt they had to follow it anyhow. The strong arm of the Most High had through this decision established a barrier for the protection of His people. The opposition can beat against this barrier but they cannot get around it. The Catholic authorities can no longer persecute God’s witnesses under this outmoded charge of sedition.

The braggadocio and swelling declarations of L’Action Catholique and Solicitor General Rivard are now sadly deflated. Duplessis, the dictatorial, freedom-hating premier of Quebec, has said he would run Jehovah’s witnesses out of the province. It was he who instituted more than one hundred seditious libel charges against Jehovah’s witnesses, for the terrible crime of trying to make the Bible known to the Catholic people. His inglorious campaign of persecution has received another setback. Of the multitude of charges NOT ONE SINGLE CONVICTION HAS BEEN MAINTAINED!