In Quebec, on March 24, 1937, the Union Nationale government of Maurice Duplessis passed the Padlock Law, which permitted closing any premises suspected of producing or distributing communist propaganda.
The law was ill-defined and denied the presumption of innocence, and was often abused by the Duplessis government against political opponents and groups it considered undesirable, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1957, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law as unconstitutional.
The last two, held on November 2, resulted in Duplessis triumphs despite the fact that they were held in constituencies where opposition to his PadlockLaw was the greatest.
In the first nine months in which the law was in effect, November 1937 through July 1938, more than 300 raids were made under the law.
In July, the Dominion Cabinet refused to act on the principle of the law, but held out hope of redress where specific injustice could be proved.
Many of the cases have involved Witness refusal to participate in patriotic activities and state-enforced laws regarding blood transfusions.
These include the striking down of Quebec'sPadlockLaw and other anti-Witness laws in the 1950s and more recent cases dealing with whether Witness parents had the right to decide what medical treatment was in the best interest of their children based on their faith.
On March 8, 1996, the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that Kobe Municipal Industrial Technical College violated the law by expelling Kunihito Kobayashi for his refusal to participate in Kendo lessons.
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