Police called after Raëlians visit school

Montreal Gazette/October 1, 2002

Police were called to a Plateau Mont Royal high school yesterday after parents complained that members of the Raëlian sect were distributing anti-Catholic pamphlets as their children were arriving at school.

About 20 members of the sect were handing out tracts outside the École Secondaire Jeanne Mance on Bordeaux St. and returned in mid-afternoon, officials of the Commission Scolaire de Montréal said. Police did not intervene because the people handing out tracts were not on school property and were exercising their freedom of speech, board spokesman Claudette Lechasseur said.

The Raëlian Church of Canada is an officially recognized religion in Quebec. The sect claims humanity was created from the DNA of superior extraterrestrial alien scientists. Tracts urged students to abandon Roman Catholicism. Raëlian spokeswoman Nicole Bertrand said the movement will target other high schools, junior colleges and universities in Montreal, Quebec City and Trois-Rivières in a two-week campaign.