Outremont moves ahead with controversial ban on places of worship

The borough council in Montreal'sOutremontneighbourhood is moving ahead withacontroversialbylaw thatbansthe establishment of new places of worship on two mainthoroughfares.

The bylawbansnew places of worship onBernardandLaurieravenues, two of the borough's keybusiness arteries.

Monday night's motion was a vote to drop a proposed amendmentto the bylaw, which the boroughfirst passed in December.

The amendment would have designated a section near the railway tracks for new places of worship, but councillors later realized the changewould have disrupted existing property lines.

• Projet Montral wants public consultation on zoning of houses of worship
• Outremont wants to ban new places of worship on 2 avenues

Only one councillor, Mindy Pollak,the first Hasidicwoman to ever hold elected office in Montreal,voted against the motion Monday night.

Outremont is home to a largeHasidic community, which represents around 25 per centof borough'spopulation.

Hasidic leaders say they worrythe banwill effectively outlaw the building of new synagogues in the borough.

A ban already exists on the establishment of new places of worship on residential streets in Outremont and on Van Horne, another commercial street running through the borough.

Only two synagogues have been established in the last 20 years, and the growing Hasidic community doesn't know where to build next.

Bylaw 'painful' for Hasidic community

"It's very painful for us,"said AbrahamEkstein, a Hasidic community leader.

"We don't want this fight, we didn't start this fight and all it would have taken was for municipal authorities to just sit down with us rather than saying 'this is democracy' and ramming this proposal down our throats."

Ekstein wouldn't say if the community is considering legal action.

"What we're talking about is a complete and outright ban in Outremont," Hasidic blogger Cheskie Weiss told CBC Montreal earlier on Monday.

Weiss said many in the Hasidic community feel unfairly targeted.

OutremontMayor MarieCinq-Marssaidanother section of the borough might be opened up for religious zoning after a consultant has weighed in.

Outremont council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposed bylaw in December, but delayed its implementation pending further consultations.

At that time, Hasidic community membersJacob Karmel and Alex Werzbergerturned to the law firm Grey Casgrain, which issued a letterwarning the borough of possible legal action if the vote was not postponed in order to conduct further study.

The borough said the proposed bylaw was necessary to create "winning conditions" to promote business onLaurier andBernard.