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(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
January 13, 2024 - 7:00 PM
Two BC Interior Jehovah's Witness churches continued their attempts to block former members from seeing the records the churches have on them.
In a second loss in that effort, the BC Supreme Court dismissed the church's attempt and ordered it to overturn the records to the province's privacy regulator.
Both the Coldstream and Grand Forks chapters took their appeal to the court arguing the privacy commissioner's ruling infringed on their religious freedoms. A judge found even if it did infringe on the church's Charter rights, it did so in the "least extent possible," according to the Jan. 8 decision.
Former church members Gabriel Wall and Gregory Westgarde left their respective congregations more than a decade ago. When a person leaves the church, however, a committee of three Jehovah's Witness elders meet with the individual to try to restore the person's spirituality.
READ MORE: Privacy commissioner orders North Okanagan Jehovah's Witnesses to hand over private records
The notes from that meeting are sealed and locked away.
It was those records Wall and Westgarde are seeking, but the church, along with elders John Vabuolas and Paul Sidhu, argued it violates religious practices to reveal that information.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner ruled in June 2022 the churches should hand over information to the regulator. The privacy commissioner would then determine what information should be handed over to Wall and Westgarde as part of their requests for church records.
The court dismissed the church appeal, upholding the privacy commissioner's decision.
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