Now deeply unpopular in Quebec, Premier François Legault is poised to lose next year’s general election.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Last week, the government of Quebec announced that it intends to table legislation this fall that will ban prayer in public places. We will now repeat that, just in case it didn’t sink in.
Quebec intends to table legislation that will ban prayer in public places.
This was perhaps always going to be the next step in Quebec’s devout effort to enforce secularism in a province that two generations ago rejected the Roman Catholic church’s influence over its society.
Reasonable people might have hoped the Coalition Avenir Québec government of François Legault would not go further than its 2019 law preventing teachers, judges, police officers and other government workers from wearing clothing or items that have religious symbolism on the job.
That law, Bill 21, was deliberately unconstitutional and only survives because of the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause.
Quebec says Bill 21 opponents are trying to overturn established law
Record number of groups to speak at Supreme Court case against Quebec secularism law
But here we are, six years later, and Mr. Legault – a deeply unpopular premier whose party is poised to lose the general election next year – now plans to extend the heavy hand of government beyond public employees in their workplaces and out into the streets and green spaces of the province.
The ostensible reason for this is that pro-Palestinian protesters have been mixing prayer into their demonstrations in Montreal ever since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and that bothers the Premier.
“Seeing people on their knees in the streets, praying, I think we have to ask ourselves the question. I don’t think it’s something we should see,” Mr. Legault said last year.
This summer, a group of peaceful Muslims bearing a Palestinian flag prayed outside one of Montreal’s biggest basilicas, prompting some passersby to tell reporters that it made them feel uncomfortable.
Is it really the act of seeing someone commune with the spiritual that is so offensive to the secular mind? Is that really an existential threat to Quebec’s cherished laïcité?
If that is the case, Quebec has opened a big can of worms.
Opinion: Hero to zero: François Legault is following in Justin Trudeau’s footsteps
It is already presumed that whatever law the government tables will infringe on an individual’s freedoms of expression, of religion, of conscience and of peaceful assembly, and then duck behind the notwithstanding clause. But how far will the government go?
What happens to a Quaker standing silently in a park? Is the government aware that this can constitute a form of prayer? Should the person be detained for questioning?
What about someone doing yoga in a park? While yoga is generally a secular practice in Canada, it can for some be a devotional exercise and a communion with a higher power. How will the government know what intentions the person doing yoga al fresco has set?
What about doing tai chi in a park? It, too, is most often a secular, meditative practice in Canada. It is not a religion in and of itself, but it can be used as part of a spiritual journey by people of different faiths. Like yoga, it depends on intention.
What about Falun Gong, a modern religious movement devoted to a god-like leader that has been banned in China? Its practitioners are often seen outdoors in parks, and sometimes on sidewalks in front of Chinese consulates, their hands clasped in the prayer position. Will Beijing suddenly have an ally in the suppression of Falun Gong members?
What about the annual Roman Catholic Good Friday procession in Old Montreal, an event involving public prayer? Will that still be allowed? It could make a secularist uncomfortable.
Or what about a soccer player who, smack in the middle of a public stadium, crosses himself before a game or when he scores a goal? Is that permissible?
If this seems ridiculous, it is no more ridiculous than the failing CAQ government taking a desperate swing at a divisive issue to save its skin.
How far Mr. Legault goes with this will be telling. Is it even possible to ban public prayer based on the actions of some Muslim protesters without also ensuring that people of other faiths and beliefs aren’t allowed to get away with the same infraction?
Or is that the whole point – to again single out the one group that was most affected by Bill 21 and its ban on hijabs, and which has so often come under fire in Quebec?
Like yoga, it’s all about setting intentions.