LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Cancellation of Christian conference an attack on religious freedom

Dear Editor, 

Recently, the Quebec government pulled the location for a Quebec City event that had been scheduled since February [at the Centre des Congrès]. With three weeks to go, hundreds of Canadians had booked vacations, plane tickets and accommodations to come.

What kind of evil event would inspire them to exert such heavy-handed power? A prayer rally. That’s right, Christians of different colours and traditions, gathering to seek healing for this beautiful nation, were deemed so inconsistent with Quebec values that the paternalistic guardians of the province felt it their duty to swoop in and save Canadians from themselves.

Their reason for this power move? The organizers are pro-life. That’s right, pro-life organizations are no longer permitted to gather and pray in the convention centre of a largely Catholic Canadian province. They will tell you it’s about women’s rights, yet here I am, a Canadian woman of colour, being denied my charter right to worship as I choose by a government who freely uses tax dollars to discriminate against me.

Dana Stoesz

Saint John, N.B.