MONTREAL -- Montreal police responded to a 911 call tonight in Mile End about a large religious gathering, but upon arriving, they found that the situation was much more serious than even the caller realized.
At around 8 p.m., police got a call about a gathering inside a place of worship that the caller believed was around 100 people, in violation of COVID-19 rules.
The current limit for places of worship in Quebec red zones, including Montreal, is 25 people per building, and they're required to keep a two-metre distance between them.
The building police responded to is on Jeanne-Mance St. near St. Viateur St., said Montreal police spokesperson Caroline Chevrefils.
Police are not identifying the building, or the community or religion involved, she said.
However, a source told CTV that it was a synagogue. There's one on Jeanne-Mance just north of St. Viateur.
Police could see there was a large group inside, but they waited outdoors, and when the "ceremony ended" at about 9:15 p.m, people started to leave and police tried to count them as they did.
They ended up finding there were about 350 people inside, Chevrefils said.
The same source also said that in a few recent illegal gatherings within various religions, Montreal police haven't been generally ticketing individuals, believing the tickets wouldn't stand up in court, unlike the situation for private parties.
They're instead focusing on trying to meet with religious leaders and try to get cooperation.
In this case, police did decide later Friday to submit a general offence report to the Quebec Crown Prosecutor's office, which will decide whether to issue tickets.
At the scene, officers spoke immediately to the head of the place of worship or a man who was in charge of the ceremony to make sure he was informed of current COVID-19 rules, she said. However, she couldn't say if he claimed not to know them, she said.
In late March, rules around places of worship were briefly relaxed, allowing for up to 250 people per building, even in red zones. However, as the third wave began this month, those limits were drastically reduced again.
