Quebec to ban public prayer in sweeping new secularism law | Quebec
Quebec says it will intensify its crackdown on public displays of religion with sweeping new legislation that critics say pushes Canadian provinces into private spheres and disproportionately affects Muslims.
Bill 9, introduced Thursday by the ruling Avenir Québec Coalition, bans prayer in public institutions, including colleges and universities. Public worship is also banned on public roads and parks, with the threat of a C$1,125 fine for groups that contravene the ban. Short, pre-approved public events are exempt.
The CAQ made secularism a key legislative priority by passing the controversial Bill 21 in 2019, which banned some public sector workers from wearing religious symbols. The CAQ plans to extend this ban to anyone working in nurseries, colleges, universities and private schools. Full-face coverings will be prohibited in these institutions, including for students.
Quebec’s secularism minister, Jean-François Roberge, said the controversial new provisions are the latest steps in a province working towards full secularization. He criticized previous arrangements for post-secondary institutions that included prayer rooms, telling reporters that schools were “not temples or churches or places like that.” The ban on public worship comes after the group Montreal4Palestine held protests outside the city’s Notre-Dame Basilica on Sunday that included prayers.
“It is shocking to see people blocking traffic, taking over public space without permission, without warning, and then turning our streets, our parks, our public spaces into places of worship,” Roberge said.
The province will also limit the serving of kosher and halal meals in public institutions. “We think Quebecers are free when the state is neutral,” Roberge said, rejecting claims that the law disproportionately affects minorities. “We have the same rules for everyone,” he said.
However, new rules for Muslim students “fee[l] “It’s like a personal attack on our community,” freshman mechanical engineering student Ines Rarrbo told The Canadian Press. “It’s like we’re not welcome here.”
Stephen Brown, president of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the move amounted to “political opportunism” and reflected “doubling down on identity politics and division in a desperate attempt to regain public trust.”
The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec said in a statement that the proposed bill would be “a radical violation of the rights and freedoms of the Quebec population” and that “the government has not demonstrated the need for such legislation.”
Bill 21 bans judges, police officers, guards and teachers from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. Other public workers, such as bus drivers, doctors and social workers, must only keep their faces uncovered.
The legislation contravenes both Quebec’s charter of human rights and freedoms and Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms, but in 2021 Quebec’s supreme court upheld the statute despite finding that the law violated the Constitution. freedom of expression And religion from religious minorities. Governments in Canada can enact laws that violate certain fundamental rights if they use a legal mechanism known as a “notwithstanding clause.”
Like Bill 21, the new legislation invokes the clause preemptively, protecting it from challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada’s supreme court is expected to hear a legal challenge to the use of this provision in the coming months.
