February 6, 1921 - Laurier Saumur - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Jehovah’s Witness crusader Laurier Saumur born in Gatineau, Quebec. In 1940, two countries had banned the Jehovah’s Witness religion: Nazi Germany and Canada. The man who relentlessly fought the oppression of his religion was Laurier Saumur, born in Gatineau, Quebec on February 6, 1921, one of 14 children. Raised Catholic, he moved to Ottawa at age 18, where his love of reading led him to information about his church he didn’t like. While in Ottawa, he discovered that one of his brothers was in prison for being a member of a banned organization, the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He began questioning his religion and on July 1, 1944 became baptized as a Witness. Witnesses believe in two worlds that exist simultaneously, with most people on earth living in Satan’s world. Witnesses also believe that one day the Earth will be destroyed at Armageddon. Part of the religion includes proselytizing on the street and at people’s doorsteps. However, in the 1940s, fearing a threat to the Catholic church, Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis declared “a war without mercy against the Witnesses of Jehovah.” Quebec City did its part with a by-law requiring the police chief’s permission to hand out pamphlets. Since permission was never forthcoming, Saumur was arrested more than 100 times between the mid 1940s and early 1950s. He challenged the arrests and twice his case went to the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1947 the Supreme Court said the case was out of its jurisdiction, yet in 1953 ruled in Saumur’s favour, saying the by-law infringed on his religious freedoms. In 1949 Saumur married Yvette Ouellette. They chose not to have children so they could devote their time to missionary work, which they did with extensive travel across Canada. Saumur died on March 22, 2007 in Grimsby, Ontario.

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