St-Lambert zoning change would ban new religious gathering places

A municipality on Montreal's South Shore has tabled a proposed zoning change that would make it very difficult for any non-Christians to have a place of worship in the area. 

St-Lambert city council has passed the first reading of a bill that would ban all new religious gathering places. 

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The proposed zoning change would make it illegal to have a place of worship outside of some very specific areas in St-Lambert.

Most of those zones are already occupied by Christian churches. 

St-Lambert Mayor Alain Dépatie says the law isn't targeting any religious or cultural minority. 

Dépatie said if a group wants to have a mosque, or a temple, or a synagogue in Saint-Lambert, one option could be to buy, rent or use an existing church.

He told CBC the bylaw is simply meant to protect business areas. 

But Samer Majzoub, the head of the Canadian Muslim Forum, is concerned there may be more to it than that.

"I am afraid to say that it might be easily considered discriminatory, targeting a group of citizens in a city because of their cultural background, depriving them of their rights to have a cultural community because they don't like their culture," Majzoub said.

This wouldn't be the first time a Quebec municipality has prevented a religious group from opening a place of worship.

Earlier this year, the City of Shawinigan turned down an application from a Muslim group that wanted to build a community centre. That decision was later reversed. 

In Montreal's east end, the borough denied an application by a controversial imam to build a community centre. 

A public hearing to discuss the proposed zoning change in St-Lambert will be held next Wednesday.