Quebec anti-suicide group loses legal challenge against municipality over ticketing

The Quebec provincial flag flies on top of the National Assembly’s main tower, January 18, 2023 in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

MONTREAL — A Quebec religious group has lost a constitutional challenge after getting fined for going door-to-door in Waterloo, Que., to share its message about suicide prevention.

The municipality fined Groupe Jaspe several hundred dollars for violating a bylaw requiring non-profit groups to obtain a permit for “selling, collecting or soliciting.”

The group argued in a municipal court that the bylaw infringes on its freedom of religion and expression as enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Claude Tremblay, founder of the Magog, Que.-based group, lost his son to suicide.

He says it is his religious duty to go door-to-door to prevent others from taking their own lives.

Tremblay has not said whether he plans to appeal the ruling.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.