Canadian Court Upholds Town's Zoning Action Against Hasidic Group

Friday's Montreal Gazette reported that the Quebec Court of Appeal has rejected a religious freedom challenge to action by the small Laurentian town of Val Morin banning a Hasidic community from continuing to use two chalets every summer for a school and a synagogue. The town says the group misrepresented its intended use for the cottages 20 years ago when they applied for building permits. The appellate court ruled that the town's zoning action may have limited the group's right to freedom of religion, but it had not "denied, ignored or compromised" it. The Followers of the Rabbis of Belz to Strengthen Torah have spent 8 weeks each summer in Val Morin for over twenty years. The remaining 40 families in the summer colony object to traffic, noise and garbage they say the Hasidic community creates. Upholding a lower court, the Court of Appeal held that the Jewish group could build on nearby land it owns. However the Belz community says that land is mostly swamp.