Father Peter Turrone leads a Palm Sunday mass to an empty church at the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on April 5, 2020, in Toronto, Canada. | Cole Burston/Getty Images
The head of the Archdiocese of Toronto has demanded that Ontario province stop imposing stricter guidelines on houses of worship than secular entities.
Cardinal Thomas Collins sent out a call to action last week denouncing how the government has imposed stricter limits on houses of worship for in-person gatherings than secular businesses.
Collins gave an example of a movie production crew that was allowed to have around 50 people filming in a church basement hall while a funeral at the same facility was limited to 10 attendees.
Toronto Cardinal says churches must be treated fairly in lockdown christianpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from christianpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Toronto church loses interim injunction over religious gatherings under COVID-19 lockdown
by News Staff
Last Updated Dec 19, 2020 at 12:27 pm EDT
The pastor of Toronto church challenging provincial orders that limit gatherings for religious services as unconstitutional says a decision Friday to deny an interim injunction is a “partial victory and a partial loss.”
Pastor Peter Youngren of the Toronto International Celebration Church filed an application earlier this month, arguing the provincial order limiting in-person services to no more than 10 people violates religious freedoms and does not represent a tailored response to the current COVID-19 crisis.
Youngren said he is not a COVID-19 denier but pointed out limiting his 1,100 seat auditorium to a maximum attendance of 10 “doesn’t seem equitable” when non-essential businesses are entitled to operate at 50 per cent capacity.
Success and Failure in Court Challenges Mounted Against COVID Restrictions
Restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 in various provinces have led some business, churches, and individuals who see the measures as unfair to resort to legal action, with mixed results.
In Ontario, Canadian Appliance Source challenged the COVID-19 restrictions that have closed seven of its locations in Vaughn, York, and Toronto, but it had its case dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court.
The major appliance chain had argued that it should qualify to remain open as a hardware store, since appliances fall under the definition of hardware, or “equipment used in a house,” and since provincial lockdown rules allow big box stores to stay open that are considered hardware stores and that also sell appliances. However, Justice Paul M. Perell ruled that there is “no ambiguity” in the definition of a hardware store.
Peter Youngren, founding pastor of Toronto International Celebration Church, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in a photo uploaded to Facebook on Nov. 2, 2020. | Facebook/Celebration Church Toronto
A Canadian church has filed suit against a provincial government over a rule that prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people, arguing that it interferes with their religious freedom.
Toronto International Celebration Church announced the lawsuit in a press release, having filed the complaint on Tuesday in the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.
At issue was a lockdown rule, implemented in November, that bans churches from having more than 10 people in attendance at worship services, weddings and funerals, even while secular places like big box stores and film studios can have 50% capacity inside their facilities.