A long and complicated court battle over personal information kept by Jehovah’s Witness Congregations in Coldstream and Grand Forks is going to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Two former Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gabriel-Liberty Wall and Gregory Westgarde, have been trying to get their personal information back from the Coldstream and Grand Forks congregations for years.

In 2022, the BC Privacy Commissioner ruled that the records had to be handed over to Wall and Westgarde, but the Jehovah’s Witness Congregations said doing so would infringe on religious charter rights so they appealed.

Since that decision, the case has been working its way through the court system including the BC Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeal. Now, the BC Humanist Association has gotten involved as an intervener as the Jehovah’s Witness Congregations appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“You have two ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses who exercise their right under the privacy law in B.C., PIPA (Personal Information Protection Act), to request the records their former congregations have on them. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have refused and fought against that, claiming religious freedom,” the humanist association’s executive director Ian Bushfield told iNFOnews.ca.

Bushfield said the hope is that this case will uphold the idea that religious freedom includes an individual’s right to be free from religion, as well as prevent similar cases where religious congregations keep private information belonging to former members.

“The thing we’re looking for the Supreme Court to do is to protect what the understanding of religious freedom is in Canada right now, as we think the courts have defined it, which is that it’s a very individual kind of right, and it’s one that includes the right to leave religion,” he said.

Part of the information that Wall and Westgarde want back is their reasoning for leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The information has been written down, put in a sealed envelope and kept under lock and key, according to the decision from 2022.

“It is part of our religious obligation and canon law that this record be kept strictly confidential. The elders who meet with the individual do not share the confidential religious summary with other elders who are not authorized to be involved in the spiritual restorative discipline,” the Jehovah’s Witness submitted in an affidavit in 2022. “Requiring congregation elders to hand over a confidential religious record as requested by (Gabriel-Liberty Wall and Gregory Westgarde) would be contrary to the elders’ religious obligation under canon law and would seriously impede them from carrying out their religious and Scriptural responsibilities before God.”

A document filed with the Supreme Court by the BC Humanist Association argues that this case is about whether someone surrenders their right to privacy when they get involved with a religious organization.

“Do Canadians surrender their quasi-constitutional right to privacy when they walk inside a church, synagogue, or mosque? If they choose to leave, must they remain forever anchored to the organization by their personal information? Should the Charter privilege a religious organization over an individual who has chosen to leave? These questions lie at the heart of this appeal,” the document reads.

There is no court date yet, but the humanist association expects the case to be heard in the fall.