The Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec is in the Sainte Foy region of Quebec
A Canadian city has decided to refuse a zoning change that would have allowed the construction of a Muslim cemetery.
The decision was made in a referendum on Sunday (07/16) in Saint-Apollinaire, a town near Quebec.
According to provincial rules, only 49 people are eligible to vote; dissenting votes were won in the referendum, with a vote of 19 to 16 and one ballot was invalid.
The construction of the cemetery was proposed by the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, in the city where six people were killed and 19 people were injured in shootings last January.
“We never thought that people could oppose the construction of a cemetery,” the president of the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, Mohamed Labidi, told Radio-Canada. “What are they afraid of?”
The Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec purchased land in a wooded area near a cemetery following the shooting. The only Muslim cemetery in Quebec is located in Laval, a few hours from Quebec.
The decision by city residents to reject construction of the cemetery has sparked outrage among Muslims and civil rights legal experts across the country and could fuel rights concerns, Kabidi said.
The mayor, in favor of the construction of the cemetery, said he feared that this decision would harm the reputation of his city.
“They don’t know these people, so they decide based on hearsay,” Mayor Bernard Ouellet told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Opponents went door to door collecting signatures to hold a referendum because construction of the cemetery would require a zoning change. Current law in the province allows referendums to be held to decide zoning issues, and only people living in the affected areas are eligible to vote.
This means that only 49 people in a town of 5,000 people were able to vote, and only 36 people voted.
“We need cemeteries that accept everyone, whatever their religion, where they come from, what their skin color is, whatever their culture. We have to think about that because in the next 20 years it will be a problem,” explained an opponent of the construction of a cemetery, Sunny Létourneau to CBC.
He said he only supported non-denominational burials.
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