OUTREMONT – The Hassidic Jewish community has scored a victory over Outremont.
Several tickets related to the borough’s minibus ban have been tossed out in municipal court, quashed on the grounds that there’s not enough signage related to the minibus bylaw.
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Beltz Community School collected nearly $2,500 in fines after transporting children on the Jewish holiday of Purim.
Why? Because it’s illegal in Outremont to use minibuses to transport children on residential streets.
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Several special events are exempted, but the Jewish festival of Purim is not one of them.
The Hassidic community insisted that amounts to discrimination.
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“We want to basically find ways to revisit this matter before the courts if the borough does not take any kind of positive action to review the bylaw,” said Fo Niemi with the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.
“Ultimately, we don’t want the Hassidic community to continuously to be penalized to the point of feeling harassed by city authorities for an activity that is so fundamental to the the community.”
Niemi told Global News the tickets have been tossed, but the fight is not over.