QUEBEC CITY (LifeSiteNews) — A Christian organization is suing the Quebec government after being refused access to a congress center last summer because they are pro-life.
In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews, Pastor Art Lucier of Harvest Ministries revealed that he has refused a $100,000 settlement and will take the Quebec provincial government to court after it banned Harvest Ministries from holding an event at a public convention center because of their pro-life moral ethic.
“We did a settlement conference last week in Quebec after I had rejected a $100,000 settlement from the Quebec government for us to just go away,” Lucier told LifeSiteNews.
“And they were going to take no responsibility for them for their actions,” he added.
Harvest Ministries International, which is based out of British Columbia, had planned to hold a religious, cultural, and artistic event called the “Battle for Canada,” at the province of Quebec’s Centre des congrès de Quebec from June 23 to July 2.
However, after the event was announced, Quebec’s minister of tourism, Caroline Proulx – with the full blessing of Quebec Premier François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) – told the convention center’s CEO to pull the plug on Harvest’s gathering due to its supposed “anti-abortion” theme, despite the fact that Harvest Ministries had signed a contract with the convention center.
Harvest Ministries has since launched a lawsuit against the Quebec government, represented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).
During the settlement conference, held February 6-7, Lucier “made it clear that we wouldn’t just take taxpayers money and run.”
“We want an acknowledgment from the Quebec government that they did wrong, and that they would allow us to go ahead for a meeting in the future,” he explained.
However, instead of apologizing, the Quebec government pushed for the matter to be resolved out of court by promising monetary compensation for the cancelled event.
“And now it will be going to court because we’re not interested in just compensation for the loss that our ministry suffered, though it was substantial,” Lucier declared.
“We need to know that we’re not going to get targeted like that again in the future,” he continued. “We need an acknowledgment from Minister Proulx that they made a mistake and that they went about it the wrong way.”
“No such letter has come and so we’ll be going to court, unfortunately,” Lucier added.
While the court date is not yet set, Lucier was confident that Harvest Ministries would win the case, explaining that is the reason the Quebec government wishes to settle out of court.
“They do know that they will lose, and so they they’re trying to make this go away,” he said.
“We are confident that we will win,” Lucier declared. “It’s a pretty cut and dry case, but more importantly, we just believe that it’s important to stand against tyranny in these days and against governmental overreach, whether or not we win is not as important as us making a stand.”
Lucier’s warning against government tyranny comes as a recent report listed Canada, under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as third among Western countries that persecute Christians for their faith.
The majority of the cases recorded in 2020 and 2021 were related to COVID-19 restrictions, as many church leaders were fined for holding in-person services during lockdowns or because Christians lost their jobs for refusing to take COVID-19 shots due to moral and religious objections.
The second theme seen throughout the past four years was Christians being fired, fined, arrested, or even imprisoned for speaking out against the LGBT or abortion agendas, as well as for praying or preaching in public.