A church is taking legal action against the city of Saguenay, Que., for evicting the Christian congregation from a public rental space on the grounds of adhering to the province’s secularism law.
The Church of Two Shores had leased a public basement rental space from the city since 2024. City officials recently terminated the lease while referencing the Act Respecting the Laicity of the State, Quebec’s secularism law, according to a June 11 news release from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which is providing legal support to the church.
City officials had informed the church in March that the city did not authorize religious activities in its rental spaces in order to comply with the secularism act, and notified the church that it must stop religious activities in the public building or face eviction….