Human Rights A Day

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 Du