Happy Changes in Quebec

THE warm, sunny days were crackling with French-Canadian enthusiasm as crowds of Jehovah’s witnesses in the province of Quebec met in their Christian “Divine Purpose” assemblies during August 1974. The Montreal assembly had an attendance of 5,785, while 2,505 gathered in Quebec City. French enthusiasm and joie de vivre (joy of living) added a little extra to the interesting Bible dramas presented there.

The Quebec assemblies were also remarkable for the broad and sympathetic coverage provided by the French-language press and other news media. They seemed fascinated by the involvement and progress of Jehovah’s witnesses, a striking contrast with the decline of the Roman Catholic Church, which for so long dominated every facet of Quebec life.

Both in Montreal and Quebec City municipally owned arenas were used for the assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses. Very fine cooperation was received from the police and public officials in both cities.

But is this remarkable? Is it not normal for these Christian assemblies to be held in peace and with cooperation from the authorities? Should it be any different in Montreal and Quebec City?

An Amazing Reversal

For those familiar with the background, these peaceful assemblies and the fine cooperation of the authorities represent a well-nigh incredible change. Events in Quebec have so turned around in the past thirty years that they have the earmarks of a revolution! A revolution without violence, with ideas and faith as weaponry instead of guns!

During the 1940’s and 1950’s Jehovah’s witnesses were virtually outlawed in Quebec. Arrests and prosecutions took place by the hundreds​—in fact, a total of 1,775 prosecutions were instituted—​the biggest volume of litigation on any one subject in the history of the British Empire! It was a reign of terror. Mobs, beatings, violence, discrimination, loss of jobs​—the whole gamut of official and private harassment of a minority was brought to play.

This was a deliberate attempt to destroy the peaceful Christian witnesses of Jehovah, who dared to preach the good news of God’s kingdom and open the Bible to the people of Catholic Quebec. This persecution was so extreme that a well-known Quebec writer, Leslie Roberts, said of this period: “To many outside Quebec, that province had become the home of religious persecution reminiscent of the days of the Inquisition.”

But how could such a thing happen? Is Canada not a free country with a democratic constitution? This is, after all, the 20th century.

A Pocket of 18th-Century Catholicism

In Quebec prior to 1960, it was only in a limited sense that the 20th century had arrived. The province had, for over three hundred years, been under the almost total domination of the Church of Rome.

Quebec was originally settled in 1608 as New France, part of the French colonial empire. The French rulers from Paris were not very interested in Canada, a land that Voltaire called “a few acres of snow.” The first governor, Samuel de Champlain, “wanted only Roman Catholics in his new world. Those who came with him . . . were determined to extend the Church . . . in the process the Church became the state. It remained so till relatively recently,” said a sociological study of Quebec problems called Canada 70.

Roman Catholic domination was prominent in the life of Quebec from the beginning of European settlement. The oppressions of the 18th-century French system, a union of Church and State, that drove the people to the French Revolution of 1789 were all introduced to Quebec. France got rid of these medieval anachronisms during the 1789 Revolution. Quebec did not, because it was no longer part of the French Empire; before the French Revolution the British conquest of Canada in 1759 had transferred the province to the British Crown.

Foreseeing the coming American Revolution, which actually arrived in 1776, the British government wanted a tranquil Quebec. Therefore Britain struck a bargain with the Catholic Church, which in effect was: ‘You support Britain; we will leave you in control of Quebec.’

The Canada 70 study explains: “In the view of many historians and writers the Conquest resulted in an unholy alliance between the Roman Catholic Church and the British Rulers. . . . Before he became Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau wrote, ‘Loyalty was bartered for religious freedom.’”

The British government really handed over the rulership of Quebec to the Catholic Church and “the Church became the State.”

Church Use of Power

And what did the Catholic Church do with its immense power? The Canada 70 study explains: “There is little need to document the control​—political and spiritual—​of the Roman Catholic Church over the French-Canadian population of Quebec during the first half of this century. The Church’s control was virtually absolute. . . . It reached also with its determined clergy, into the offices of government, into institutions of learning, into the bank vaults of business and into the homes of the people. . . .

“Throughout the nineteenth century, the Church fought its determined battle on every front against any liberal or anticlerical ideas that might have found their way into Quebec.”

By reason of these peculiarities of history, Quebec missed the effects of the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the industrial revolution. The province came into the mid-20th century as a pocket of 18th-century agrarian society cut off by language from mainstream North America.

The church-controlled backwardness of Quebec made it a fertile field for exploitation by unscrupulous men.

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NEWFOUNDLAND

ONTARIO

QUEBEC

MONTREAL

NEW BRUNSWICK

UNITED STATES

Church and State Unite to Prevent Progress

MAURICE Duplessis became premier of Quebec in 1936. With the exception of one term (1939-1944), he continued in office till his death in 1959. Historian Leslie Roberts has described him as a “ruthless demagogue ruling his Union Nationale party and the entire province of Quebec with an iron will; rabble-rouser and dictator; grand seigneur and tyrant.”

The Duplessis rule has been described in the Toronto Star as “the most openly corrupt the province ever had.”

Support by Church

And where did one find support for this evil? In “rural Quebec . . . where the Church was all powerful. It was from there that the party’s first leader, Maurice Duplessis, drew his strength,” says Canada 70.

The Duplessis system depended on the Roman Catholic Church to keep it in power. Responsibility for the damage his administration brought to the province and its people has to come back on the clergy of Rome.

What advantage did the clergy derive from this alliance? The Canada 70 study explains: “The right of assembly and freedom of speech were denied Jehovah’s Witnesses because they questioned the gospel according to le Chef (Duplessis), and the Roman Catholic Church. He maintained his power through his alliance with the Church, the farmers, and the reactionary English-speaking business elite. Through it all, he was aided by a docile press.”

The freedom-hating Duplessis perfectly suited the purposes of the Catholic Church. The clergy wanted to dedicate the people of Quebec to the Church. Bishops proclaimed that the French-Canadian nation had a messianic mission​—“to make the province of Quebec the Christian nation replacing faltering France in the role of the eldest daughter of the Church.”

Duplessis and the Church worked together to stifle the education and progress that would free les Québecois from the medieval grip in which they were held. In large measure this combination succeeded in preventing advancement and in keeping the people of Quebec subject to their oppressive church-state rule.

But not everyone bowed to the system! There was one glimmer of freedom that this local dictatorship could not stamp out!

Jehovah’s Witnesses Fight for Religious Liberty

The Lord Jesus had said of this “time of the end” where we have been since 1914: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matt. 24:14) The Christian witnesses of Jehovah accept this mandate. Part of the “inhabited earth” is the province of Quebec. There Jehovah’s witnesses began to enlarge their missionary evangelical activity in 1924.

The problems appeared mountainous. The people were friendly enough if left alone; but priestly influence led to violence and arrests as a standard part of missionary experience. Many Catholic judges, educated by priests, had a somewhat myopic view of the legal rights of any who dared to disagree with the Church. Legal battles in the courts of Quebec began in 1924 and continued until 1964.

Jehovah’s witnesses were seeking to exercise the legally guaranteed right of freedom of worship by peaceably preaching to the people the encouraging message of God’s kingdom under Christ Jesus. But in Quebec, the attempt to exercise these modern-day liberties encountered a Roman Catholic-controlled system that had never really come out of the Dark Ages. To them Jehovah’s witnesses (or any non-Catholics) were heretics who had no rights.

It was a classic confrontation similar to that encountered by the apostles when they sought to preach the message of God’s kingdom in the face of Roman power during the days of Nero. Jehovah’s witnesses faced a powerful, rich and politically entrenched Catholic Church. From a human standpoint it was no contest; the Catholic Church seemingly had all the advantages. The humble witnesses of Jehovah were without influence or support from earthly authorities, but they were extremely strong in faith and in the spirit of Jehovah.

The activity of Jehovah’s witnesses in Quebec prior to World War II was limited and under constant harassment from priests, mobs and government prosecutors. But in the mid-1940’s the struggle for liberty to preach there came to a head. By this time the Church had its tool, Duplessis, in the political saddle. Could he stop the preaching of the Christian witnesses of Jehovah? Could he keep the open Bible out of the hands of the Catholic population of Quebec?

“War Without Mercy”

In 1944 the evangelical activity of Jehovah’s witnesses began to be expanded in the province of Quebec. The same old pattern of petty prosecutions resumed, charges of distributing circulars, peddling or ringing doorbells were laid in Montreal, Verdun, Lachine and Quebec City.

Jehovah’s witnesses were not easily turned aside from their God-given duty to preach “this good news of the kingdom.” Cases were defended and their preaching continued. The battle was stepped up during 1945 by a series of riots inspired by the Catholic clergy. These riots arose primarily at Châteauguay and Lachine. Resultant countrywide publicity focused attention on the growing religious conflict in Quebec.

By the end of 1945 there were 400 cases pending in the courts. The authorities hoped by delays and harassment to stop the activity of Jehovah’s people and prevent a clear legal decision that would open the way to appeal.

In the autumn of 1946 there were 800 charges dragging through the courts. There were so many cases against Jehovah’s witnesses that the police, judges and courts could not handle them all. The situation was becoming critical.

The public had the right to know about the Duplessis reign of terror. In November 1946 Jehovah’s witnesses released a fiery tract denouncing their persecution by the church-state powers in Quebec.

The distribution of this indictment and a follow-up tract was a bitter blow to Duplessis. Threats, fulminations and pronouncement of “war without mercy on Jehovah’s witnesses” were his reaction. To the 800 pending cases, 843 more charges were added in four months. However, the prosecutors now switched from simple bylaw charges to serious criminal indictments for seditious libel and conspiracy. No effort was made by the authorities to deny the facts outlined in the leaflets. They said in effect: ‘It is seditious for you to tell even the truth about how bad this situation really is.’

Pressures Intensify

Continuing with their Christian commission, Jehovah’s witnesses found pressures intensified. Mobs formed in the streets against Witnesses calling at the doors.

Because of their faith, children were expelled from school or dragged into court as juvenile delinquents. Family men lost their jobs, business licenses were canceled. Police and mobs invaded places of worship and broke up meetings.

Respectable Christian girls were arrested, stripped and held in filthy jails with prostitutes, thieves and dope fiends. Some were arrested while merely walking along the street or going shopping. Many leaflets had to be distributed at night to avoid false arrests for exercising this constitutional right.

Janet MacDonald, a faithful missionary who shared in this work, says: “Daytime and nighttime the leaflets were distributed. We flew around the countryside over the cold winter snows, often with the police in hot pursuit. In the middle of the night a carload of Witnesses would dash into a village with a supply of leaflets. Each of us would run to the assigned houses, deliver the leaflets, dash back to the car and away we went! While the police were searching that village, we would be on to another.”

In his book The Chief, Leslie Roberts said of Duplessis’ war: “Provincial police squads brought in Witnesses literally by the hundreds as they stood quietly on street corners handing out their fiery tracts. In the city of Quebec, a man named Laurier Saumur became the star ‘repeater’ . . . arrested and charged on one hundred and three separate occasions during the ‘war.’”

Defeat of Oppression

THE extreme measures adopted by Duplessis, and the intemperate remarks of some lower-court judges, caused a backlash from liberty-loving elements among the Canadian people.

In a case at Quebec City, Judge Jean Mercier unleashed a bitter attack on one of Jehovah’s witnesses who was on trial for a simple bylaw charge. The Globe and Mail, an influential Toronto newspaper, commented about this editorially on December 19, 1946. Under the heading “Return of the Inquisition,” it said:

“The persecution of the religious sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, now going on in Quebec Province with enthusiastic official and judicial sanction, has taken a turn which suggests that the Inquisition has returned to French Canada. Judge Jean Mercier of the recorder’s court at Quebec City, is reported to have said that the Quebec police are now instructed to ‘arrest on sight every known or suspected Witness.’ If this is true, Quebec’s police power is being used to lock up men and women for holding a religious opinion.

“This is a monstrous outrage on civil liberties. It was the theory of the Inquisition that one function of the courts was to rid the community of heretics. The Inquisition put heretics to death, while Quebec only puts them in jail; but Judge Mercier would apparently not be averse to a revival of the severer penalty. He would award every Jehovah’s Witness ‘at least life imprisonment’ if that were possible, he is reported to have said.”

Many Canadians Shocked

The information respecting the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses was a shock to many Canadians. The faith and tenacity of this minority in the face of overwhelming opposition earned them much respect.

One well-known newsman, Jack Karr, reported in the Toronto Star of December 26, 1946:

“It takes courage to be a Jehovah’s Witness in the province of Quebec today​—courage and a thing known earthily as guts. For the Witnesses are the object of hatred, suspicion and contempt of the rank and file of the population. Few Quebeckers, however, seem to be quite sure why they hate and despise the Witnesses, except that they have been told by their government to beware of them.

“But if it is difficult for non-Quebeckers to be Witnesses in the province, it must be many times harder for those Quebeckers who have renounced their faith and joined the movement. They have lost friends and are, in effect, socially ostracized in their neighborhoods. People who were once their friends now spy on them, they claim, and report on their activities, and when meetings are held, the immediate neighborhoods are tense with antagonism and undisguised spying.

“For this reason, it is sometimes a little difficult for an outsider to grasp the significance of the situation and to understand fully that these things are actually happening in Canada. An onlooker may not be in total accord with either the Witness’ doctrines nor with their methods of attaining their ends, but at least he will emerge from the experience of associating with them with a tremendous respect for their courage and their doggedness in asserting their rights. . ..

“In short, the Witnesses of Jehovah, a small group of 200, have created quite a flurry in old Quebec. And in a city composed of a population 90 per cent French-speaking and 95 per cent Roman Catholic, their meetings are beginning to resemble the meetings of the early Christians in Nero’s Rome.”

And what did all this suffering lead to?

Jehovah’s witnesses fought their way to five key victories in the Supreme Court of Canada between 1949 and 1959 and thus blunted the vicious church-state attack. These test cases in the Supreme Court laid down governing principles that successfully disposed of the many hundreds of other cases.

The last two major cases were won in 1959. One was a personal action brought against Maurice Duplessis by one of Jehovah’s witnesses who had operated a restaurant in Montreal. His liquor license was canceled because he provided bail for many accused witnesses of Jehovah. The Supreme Court of Canada made Duplessis personally liable for the damages. Three months after the judgment was paid, Duplessis was dead.

Value of Decisions Recognized

The value of these decisions and of the courageous stand of Jehovah’s witnesses has been warmly recognized by leading constitutional authorities in Canada. In his book on Federalism and the French Canadian, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, now Prime Minister of Canada, stated: “In the province of Quebec Jehovah’s witnesses . . . have been mocked, persecuted, and hated by our entire society; but they have managed by legal means to fight church, government, nation, police and public opinion.”

Professor Frank Scott of McGill University, in his book Civil Liberty and Canadian Federalism, discusses the case of Lamb v. Benoit: “The Lamb case is merely another example of police illegality, but it is part of the dismal picture that has too often been exposed in Quebec in recent years. Miss Lamb, another Jehovah’s witness, was illegally arrested, held over the weekend without any charge being laid against her, not allowed to telephone a lawyer, and then offered her freedom on condition she sign a document releasing the police from all responsibility for the way they had treated her. When reading such a story one wonders how many other innocent victims have been similarly treated by the police but have not had the courage and the backing to push the matter through to final victory​—in this instance 12 ¹⁄₂ years after the arrest had taken place. We should be grateful that we have in this country some victims of state oppression who stand up for their rights. Their victory is the victory of us all.”

Quebec Turns Forward: The Quiet Revolution

WITHIN six months of Duplessis’ death in 1959 his government went down in defeat. It was said by Ramsay Cook in his book Canada and the French Canadian Question: “The death of Duplessis removed a cap that had kept the seething discontents of French Canada sealed up for more than a decade. It is doubtful if even Duplessis could have kept the cap on much longer, for the social and economic forces at work were much too potent.”

Writing of these conditions, Pierre Elliott Trudeau (himself a Catholic) described the necessity of “freeing consciences bullied by a clericalized and obscurantist church . . . freeing men crushed by authoritarian and outdated tradition.” He pointed out that there had never been much freedom in Quebec and added: “Around 1960 it seemed that freedom was going to triumph in the end. . . . so much so that the generation entering its 20’s in 1960 was the first in our history to receive fairly complete freedom as its lot. The dogmatism of Church and State, of tradition, of the nation, had been defeated.”

A Turning Point

The “change from the old way” brought new developments on many sides. The year 1960 marked a turning point, a leap forward with such suddenness that it is commonly spoken of as the “Quiet Revolution.”

A new era of information and intellectual liberty opened up. The press and media began to deal with the reality of life and its problems instead of having everything slanted to the protection of Catholicism and the status quo. The Canada 70 sociologists commented: “The establishment of a Department of Education in 1964 spelled the end of the Church’s control of education, and the advent of the Quiet Revolution in 1960 terminated the incredible political powers of the clergy.”

Quebec of the 1960’s really began to shed the old image of clergy domination and isolationism. It started to reach out for the North American life-style as it is found in the rest of Canada and the United States.

A number of factors of 20th-century life have contributed toward the Quiet Revolution, Quebec’s “society in motion.” One of these was the Vatican council initiated by Pope John XXIII. The changes in the Church that followed this council had an unsettling influence on many of the Catholic people.

Instead of total Catholic domination the Montreal Star has pointed out that it is now “the common view among Quebec intellectuals that the Church is what has always been wrong with Quebec.”

The victories of Jehovah’s witnesses in the Supreme Court of Canada opened a new era for the exercise of civil liberties and freedom of the press in Quebec. Censorship had been declared unconstitutional. No longer were public speakers and writers fearful of the heavy hand of a government prosecutor being used to halt the legitimate flow of information.

Another feature of Canadian life that has had a profound impact on Quebec has been the advent of television. As long as the habitant in his village knew only what the local priest told him, he could be readily deceived into believing that he was well cared for by his clerical keeper. But when television arrived, he began to see what the rest of the world was like and how backward the Catholic-controlled communities really were.

Though the Quiet Revolution has not been fought with guns, it has wrought immense changes in Quebec. But what of the entrenched position of Roman Catholicism?

Decline in Catholic Power

Canada 70 sociologists point out: “It was inevitable that the Catholic Church would some day have to relinquish its complete control of the people, and in Quebec the Church’s loss of power was sudden and dramatic.”

The Montreal Star carried the following account by writer Ralph Surette: “The power of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec has disintegrated; anguish and indifference on the part of both laity and clergy betray a state of crisis . . . The crisis is known. The commission takes as given (and confirms) what is common knowledge: that attendance at mass has dropped drastically, that priests are leaving, that many parishes are in financial trouble.”

The same article points to the impact on the clergy, saying: “Clericalism as an absolute power started to crumble at this time [1949], paving the way for the state to become the prime institution in Quebec life in the 1960’s. . . . Over relatively few years, the Quebec priest has lost ‘both his social status and his audience.’”

So serious had become the problems of the Catholic Church that at the request of the bishops a government commission, the Dumont Commission, was appointed to investigate the “Laity and the Church.” The Commission’s 315-page report was released in December 1971, and mostly confirmed what well-informed people already knew: that the Church had lost the confidence of the people; that the clergy and laity are both leaving the Church.

As far as the people of Quebec are concerned, the common view often expressed is: ‘The Church has disappeared.’

“Leaving the Church in Droves”

Ultimately a church depends on the support of the people. The Dumont Report tells what has happened from this aspect of Catholic life: “During the last ten years, religious practice has dropped rapidly. It is most evident among the young, but the decline reaches progressively and more quietly the older people.”

Just how rapidly is shown by Relations, the Montreal publication for priests, which stated in March 1974: In ten years Sunday church attendance has dropped from 65 percent to 30 percent; and, among the young, between 15 and 35 years of age, it has gone down to 12 percent.

Bishop Léo Blais of Westmount has stated publicly that “the faithful are leaving the church in droves.”

There is also a serious problem of replacements in the priesthood. Seminaries for training priests have been closed in Nicolet, Joliette, Rimouski and Sherbrooke. The buildings are being used by the government for community colleges and, at Nicolet, for a police school.

Figures respecting candidates for the priesthood are revealing. The Dumont Report shows: “The annual figure of candidates for holy orders (priests and others) in our Church in 1946 was over 2,000, but in 1970 a little over a hundred.”

Relations stated in March 1974: “In 1968 the recruiting of priests began to drop rapidly . . . Many pastors are leaving the ministry. At the same time the recruiting of ministers has reached a minimum:3 new seminary students this year.” This is for Montreal, a diocese claiming 1,700,000 Catholics, more than one third of the church membership in the province.

Membership in Catholic organizations is also declining fast. The Sacred Heart League, which had 28,000 members 10 years ago, now has only 3,000.

Apart from the spiritual problems and personnel problems, there is also the difficulty in Quebec of simply maintaining the churches. Many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy.

A number of well-known churches in the city of Montreal have been demolished and the property used for other purposes. One of these is the Church of Notre-Dame-d’Alexandrie on Amherst Street. In this case the priest, Benjamin Tremblay, was happy to see his church being destroyed by the demolition crew. But why was he happy?

He is reported publicly to have said that the Church must now occupy itself with social and economic life in the area and that the new center will help the economically depressed section in which it stands. He had said earlier that it would be better to sell these churches than to keep “white elephants.” Eleven large Catholic churches have closed in Montreal since 1967, while others are slated either to be sold or to be wrecked.

Causes of Catholic Decline

What has happened? What led to the dramatic decline of Catholic power?

Lack of confidence in Catholic leadership has led to much uncertainty and this is not confined to Quebec. Andrew M. Greeley, a Jesuit critic of the U.S. hierarchy, has commented: “Honesty compels me to say that I believe the present leadership of the church is morally, intellectually and religiously bankrupt. We do not have the leaders who can communicate a sense of direction to us.”

The Canada 70 sociologists found within the Church in Quebec “an enormous credibility gap. The gap had reached such proportions that the laity found reason to suspect virtually all the movements within the hierarchy of the church.”

Bishop Léo Blais, already quoted, has also pointed to the clergy. According to him, some priests are presently sources of confusion in the Church in Montreal. Bishop Blais suggested that it is “our lack of discipline and our disobedience which has caused confusion in their minds and led many Catholics astray.”

“Is the Church Dead?”

“Is the Church Dead?” is a question asked in a headline by the French-language journal La Patrie of Montreal.

In reply, priest Hubert Falardeau said that the popes and bishops “have forgotten that the church was not a temporal society but a spiritual one. They wanted to have quantity of members and not members of quality. To keep people in the church it was necessary to have precepts. The people were not very well educated so they stuffed them full of precepts. All these things​—the feast days, the big ceremonies, were used to draw big numbers of people.”

He further explains: “There is a de-Christianization because there was no real Christianization. When the church started, people were baptized when they were adults. Afterward it was presupposed that everybody was a Christian and they baptized them at birth.”

This Catholic priest now speaks about the need for real Christianization, adult baptism and missionary work among the people. These are the practices strictly adhered to by Jehovah’s witnesses and which have markedly contributed to the success of their activity. No one needs to ask if Jehovah’s witnesses are dead; their action and dedicated missionary work in all parts of the earth are an answer, not in words, but in action!

Jehovah’s witnesses’ engaged in a grass-roots missionary work from door to door among the people of Quebec. When Witness Everett Carlson of Joliette, Quebec, was asked what he observed among the Catholic people that would account for their changed attitude toward the Church, he said: “Since 1970 there has been a marked change in the attitude of the people. They are less afraid to speak to Jehovah’s witnesses, to ask questions and express themselves about the changes in the Church. They readily admit that altered teaching on hell fire, eating meat on Friday and many other things, have shaken their faith.”

It should be remembered that, while the Roman Church has lost much of its almost sovereign power in Quebec, it would be inaccurate to leave the impression that it has completely departed the scene. Younger people have in great measure withdrawn their support, but the older generation of both clergy and laity continue to give the Church a still not inconsiderable following. Ritual and habit die hard.

However, there have been rapid changes in Quebec between 1960 and 1974. The Quiet Revolution has led to many useful developments.

New Era of Freedom in Quebec

WHAT would you see if you were to visit Quebec today?

You would observe a society much like the rest of North America. Gone are the fear and oppression that hung like a pall over the people during the period of total Catholic domination. They can make their own decisions as to education, work, family planning, religion​—no longer concerned about the approval of the priest.

Government has taken over and improved education since 1964. The thrust of education now is to business and technical training instead of theology and philosophy. Opportunities are more and more opening up for the French-Canadian youth to enter the business and industrial world.

Press and other media are free to research the questions of the day and to publish their findings. The Quebecker of today is more knowledgeable and better informed than ever before. Educated public opinion demands better government.

Minorities such as Jehovah’s witnesses and others are just as free nowadays in Quebec as anywhere else. There is a whole new atmosphere of intellectual freedom never known prior to the “Quiet Revolution.”

Quebec has come out of the night of backwardness into the modern world with a great leap forward. While many conditions have improved by reason of these changes respecting the secular affairs of life, yet there is one other important human need that must be considered!

The Religious Vacuum: Who Can Fill It?

Any sudden removal of the core of a society leaves an empty space. So what has happened in Quebec following the sudden decline of the power of the Catholic Church?

Montreal Star writer Ralph Surette comments: “The Catholic Church has been at the core of French Canadian society for 300 years . . . What happens when that kind of power vanishes? . . . anguish and indifference on the part of both laity and clergy have sprung in the place where the Church once stood firm.”

So who or what can fill this religious vacuum? Who is ready to supply the need of the people for spiritual comfort and Bible instruction? Most religions in Canada have in times past been afraid to expand in Quebec for fear of the dominant Catholic hierarchy. As a result they are not equipped to fill the religious need that now exists.

However, there is one notable exception! For the past fifty years Jehovah’s witnesses have continued unfailingly in good times and bad to show their loving concern for the French-Canadian people. They have offered Bible instruction and spiritual comfort to all who desired it. Jehovah’s witnesses are solidly established in Quebec, having now 130 congregations and over 7,000 persons actively participating in giving Bible instruction. They are ready and able to fill the religious vacuum. But can they command the confidence of the people?

Respect and Confidence Have Been Earned

It has now become abundantly evident that the opposition to Jehovah’s witnesses formerly manifest among the Quebec populace was caused by misinformation sponsored by the clerical and political leaders of the time. In the meantime the people have become acquainted with Jehovah’s witnesses firsthand and now take a much different view.

A French-Canadian columnist, André Rufiange, writing in Le Journal de Montreal of July 30, 1973, said: “Duplessis must have turned over in his grave, he who treated Jehovah’s witnesses as scarecrows and who convinced us, in school at the time, that they were a sect of evildoers . . . I am not a Witness. But I am a witness to the fact that the Witnesses witness to efficiency and proper behaviour. . . . Really very nice people. If they were the only people in the world, we would not at night have to bolt our doors shut and put on the burglar alarm.”

Jehovah’s witnesses and their peaceful practice of Bible instruction in the homes of the people are now a well-recognized and accepted part of the Quebec scene. Often householders ask them: ‘The Church has disappeared. What happens next? Where do we go from here?’ Having lost confidence in the long-dominant Church, many Quebeckers are now turning to Jehovah’s witnesses as the only people seriously interested in their personal problems and religious needs.

Their organization is growing numerically as well as in quality and maturity. Over the last decade Jehovah’s witnesses have sponsored a French-language school in Montreal that has already given basic French-language training to more than 1,200 individuals, who have moved from other parts of Canada to serve where the need is greater in that part of the field.

Additionally, in the summer of 1974, Jehovah’s witnesses released a translation of the Bible in modern French, available at a figure within the reach of everyone. Everything possible is being done for the spiritual encouragement of the Quebec people. Jehovah’s witnesses often remark how much they enjoy working among these interesting and stimulating people.

Confirming the gaining of respect, Georges Bherer, writer for Le Soleil of Quebec City, published his observations after attending the “Divine Purpose” assembly there in August 1974: “Jehovah’s witnesses have experienced a staggering increase in the province of Quebec over the last few years. . . .

“For the witness of Jehovah, religion is a way of life and not a collection of ceremonies. Placing emphasis on honesty and moral purity, they preach that Christ is really the Son of God and that all hope of future life depends on the faith one exercises in him. They believe that in the very near future, in our own generation, God’s kingdom will destroy the present evil system.”

The success and effectiveness of the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses in Quebec has itself contributed to the respect and confidence of the people of Quebec. The Montreal newspaper Le Petit Journal, July 28, 1974, has publicly pointed to the religious decline on one side and progress on the other, stating: “While traditional religions are on the wane, with churches getting emptier all the time, Jehovah’s witnesses are experiencing increased membership and are even purchasing former church buildings and other facilities in which to gather their new members.

“Whereas they only had 356 members [in Quebec] in 1945, they numbered about 7,000 across the province in 1974, divided into 120 congregations who reach 125 towns.

“In 1973 the witnesses of Jehovah saw their numbers increase by 22 percent. Because of this big increase of witnesses in Quebec several halls and churches were purchased to provide meeting places. The most important building purchase in the Montreal district is the Dorémi dance hall at Saint Luc which can seat 1,800 people.” The property at Saint Luc, Quebec, has become an Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses.

The town of Joliette, Quebec, used to be a special center for Roman Catholicism. An immense seminary was one of the most dominant structures in the town. Missionaries of Jehovah’s witnesses were driven out by Catholic riots in 1949.​—See Awake!, April 8, 1950.

Now there is an active congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses in Joliette with a fine Kingdom Hall on one of the main thoroughfares. Meanwhile the seminary has been purchased by the government and turned into a community college. This former seminary has twice been used by Jehovah’s witnesses for their semiannual circuit assemblies.

Roland Gagnon was a Joliette businessman who, in 1949, formed part of the mob that drove Jehovah’s witnesses out of town. At present he is a member of the Joliette congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses.

Now that they know Jehovah’s witnesses better, many of the naturally friendly and vivacious French Canadians have changed and are showing their confidence and respect by responding to the encouraging Bible information offered to them.

But how is this teaching affecting the lives of the people who accept it?

People Being Helped

Many are the pressures of this unstable world. Problems are universal, but especially does youth need help. This is being provided by Jehovah’s witnesses. The following news heading from Montreal’s La Patrie of July 28, 1974, focuses on some of the good work being done: “YOUNG HIPPIE DOPE ADDICTS RESCUED BY JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES.”

The article explains how four young former drug addicts, three men and one woman, became Jehovah’s witnesses, cleaned up their persons as well as their moral practices. Pictures were published showing how each looked before and after becoming Jehovah’s witnesses. The “before” pictures showed long-haired, unkempt youths; the “after” showed four clean-cut young persons.

The article by reporter Andrée Le Bel comments: “Their life style has greatly changed because they say they have at last found a purpose in life to which they can devote all their energies . . . All of Jehovah’s witnesses are agreed that practicing Bible principles in daily life improves moral conduct and the quality of life.”

Another young man, a Catholic from Montreal, had allowed his life to be swallowed up in gambling. “One night while I was at the races, my brother-in-law and his wife visited my home and left two copies of the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life with my wife,” he writes. “When I got home she explained what she had learned about the end of this system being very close and that those who do not take sides with Jehovah will be destroyed. She suggested I read the little blue book, which was opened to page 94. She got through to me, because I was really upset about the way I was carrying on and I knew I had to change. My conscience bothered me so much that I couldn’t sleep at night.

“I read the little book the next day, and that evening asked my brother-in-law to study with me. Now I am happy to be among Jehovah’s witnesses with my wife.”

These are just some of the experiences of those who have been helped by the preaching and teaching work of Jehovah’s witnesses. Such happy examples could be multiplied many times.

What appeal of Jehovah’s witnesses reaches the hearts of so many? It is the simple and uncomplicated Bible message that the government of Jehovah God and his Son Christ Jesus is about to take over the rule of the earth from the present stumbling systems. This government will make changes that result in happiness and life to all those who qualify to live in such new order.

Happy changes have already been made in Quebec, but the greatest are yet to come through God’s kingdom. Jehovah’s witnesses extend the invitation to all to join with them and learn more about Jehovah, the God of love, and his grand purposes for mankind. As the Bible says: “Happy is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked ones . . . But his delight is in the law of Jehovah . . . and everything he does will succeed.”​—Ps. 1:1-3.