View cases - Stewart McKelvey

- 75 -(T. Macklem, “Faith as a Secular Value” (2000), 45 McGill L.J. 1, at p. 25)138 However, it should be noted that to analyse a religious practice in the contextof conscientious objection, it is necessary to examine the believer’s perception. It isimportant that a believer’s religious practices not be limited to those of the majority orof an entire community, or to those that are considered to be generally accepted. Still,it is the person relying on a religious precept to establish the mandatory nature of his or2004 SCC 47 (CanLII)her religious practice who must prove that the precept exists; see J. Woehrling,“L’obligation d’accommodement raisonnable et l’adaptation de la société à la diversitéreligieuse” (1998), 43 McGill L.J. 325, at p. 388, and H. Brun, “Un aspect crucial maisdélicat des libertés de conscience et de religion des articles 2 et 3 des Chartes canadienneet québécoise: l’objection de conscience” (1987), 28 C. de D. 185, at p. 195. In additionto this initial examination, there is also the question of the sincerity of the personclaiming the right. Once again, though, the two dimensions of the right to freedom ofreligion must not be forgotten. The sincerity of beliefs does not bar a court fromexamining the observance of rites, which have social significance, in light of s. 9.1 of theQuebec Charter. In fact, this is essential, since the Charter, like the Civil Code ofQuébec, constitutes a coherent legislative whole. I believe that the following commentabout the Civil Code by Professor M. Tancelin can be transposed to this situation:[TRANSLATION] A serious, and fairly common, error is made about the CivilCode, namely a belief that it is a consolidation of laws, which it may be inform, whereas it is a document that, once voted on one or more times, formsa whole. In reality, it is one law, a self-contained law that forms a wholedespite the wide variety of subjects with which it deals. Thus, the rule ofinterpretation that every legal provision be read in light of those surroundingit also applies to the articles of each of the subsets that make up thedivisions of the Code. In concrete terms, this means that each portion of theCode has been drafted in a manner consistent with the others. [Emphasis inoriginal.]