Other Accommodations: Sikh Advocacy, Religious Architecture, and Cultural Preservation in Quebec

This chapter examines the advocacy work undertaken by a Montreal Sikh congregation, the Gurdwara Sahib Quebec (GSQ), to procure funds from a Quebec government agency, the Religious Heritage Council (RHC), to preserve the historic building it owns and utilizes for its services. The building is a Neo-Gothic church constructed in 1900 for the once burgeoning Baptist population of the neighborhood of Pointe-Saint-Charles. Initially the RHC, whose mandate is to distribute funds to religious communities who are working to preserve any religious art and architecture with an identifiable 'heritage value' for Quebec, resisted the idea that a non-Christian community could preserve the building accurately. The negotiations between the GSQ and the RHC are significant not only for what they reveal about the complex processes informing Sikh identity in Quebec, but also because they took place against the backdrop of Quebec's 'reasonable accommodation' debate. Keywords: Gurdwara Sahib Quebec (GSQ); Religious Heritage Council (RHC); Sikhtradition