The Quebec Council of Hasidic Jews on Friday initiated a court proceeding that will challenge the Canadian province's COVID-19 8 p.m. curfew in "red zones", stating that the measure will impact their religious rights during the daylight savings months.
Observant Jews will be negatively impacted by darkness falling later in the evening, where provincial nighttime curfews are in place. Most importantly, once it does not get dark until after 8 p.m., they would be unable to attend synagogue for Maariv (evening prayers) because their presence would break the 8 p.m. curfew in "red zones" such as Montreal.
The court filing states that, "Evening prayer must be held after nightfall, which occurs every day 72 minutes after sunset. This is a practice followed religiously by the Hasidic Jewish community since time immemorial.”
Quebec Council of Hasidic Jews vice-president Max Lieberman told Global News that with the Quebec government not interested in reaching a compromise regarding the curfew, religious Jews will be faced with an untenable decision: whether to continue practicing their religion or to follow the rule of law.
“If it is permitted to walk your dog after the curfew, how can it be maintained that a practicing believer, who respects the barrier measures decreed by public health, cannot return home after 8 p.m.?” Lieberman said in a statement to the news agency.
The filing continues to say that, "The imposition of a curfew less than an hour before nightfall and eventually after nightfall, considering the progressive extension of the period of daily daylight, constitutes a very serious obstacle to religious freedom of people whose religious beliefs require to attend a ceremony or a group prayer in a place of worship after nightfall."
Quebec is Canada's only province with a nightly curfew. Outside of Montreal, the curfew begins at 9:30 p.m. Most of Quebec's Jews live in Montreal.