adopted legislation on Thursday<\/a>, extending the ban on wearing religious symbols in public workplaces to daycare workers, prohibiting prayer rooms in public institutions and banning public prayer without explicit municipal consent.<\/p>\n“No public road or public park may be used for the purposes of collective religious practice unless a municipality authorizes, exceptionally and on a case-by-case basis, such a use in its public domain by resolution of the municipal council,” the text of the law reads.<\/p>\n
Martin Lalibert\u00e9, the head of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops, believes the new law turns religious people into second-class citizens.<\/p>\n
He notes that street closures and public demonstrations happen all the time, including for sporting events, protests, and cultural events.<\/p>\n
“If we do it for religious reasons, we don’t have the right,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “So people in society who are believers become second-class citizens who don’t have the right, like any other citizen, to demonstrate [when it’s] in the name of their faith.”<\/p>\n
He said procession organizers have always coordinated with local officials and respected municipal rules, but never before had to seek express permission to hold their events.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Quebec educators, volunteers speak out on impact of Bill 21:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775298141_294_default.jpg\")
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Quebec\u2019s secularism law sidelined their careers. The Supreme Court is going to rule on it<\/p>\n
The province\u2019s secularism law Bill 21 will go before the Supreme Court of Canada on March 23. Although some legal experts say it\u2019s unlikely, there\u2019s a chance the court overturns the law. Many Quebecers who wear religious symbols and have been living with the effects of the law will be watching closely.<\/p>\n
“It was a right, and now it’s not a right any more,” he said. The new law, he said, leaves churches relying on the goodwill of city councils, who can decide whether or not to grant permits for the event.<\/p>\n
Lalibert\u00e9 says senior Catholic leaders are concerned the new law goes far beyond ceremonial processions. He notes the legislation invokes powers that allow the province to override some sections of the Charter and shield the law from court challenges.<\/p>\n
“We have rights, according to the Charter, which says you have a right to express your faith publicly,” Lalibert\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n
But with the new law, he said people don’t have that right any more.<\/p>\n
“That’s a big shift for us,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Quebec Catholic bishops participated in consultations on the new law, where they expressed particular concern with the public prayer ban and the expansion of the religious symbols prohibition. <\/p>\n
Lalibert\u00e9 said politicians appeared to listen, but were unwilling to adopt the changes.<\/p>\n
He believes the new law has “no utility,” because the government already has all the tools it needs to protect secularism.<\/p>\n
The Quebec government did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.<\/p>\n
John Zucchi, national director of Communion and Liberation Canada, says procession organizers always communicate with police about the event, but have been told in the past that it’s not necessary to inform the city.<\/p>\n
He says the event last year drew nearly 1,000 people, who walk in silence behind a person carrying a crucifix to different churches, where there is singing, gospel readings and poems.<\/p>\n
Unlike many church events, he says attendance has gone up in recent years, and numbers have roughly doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
“I think people are struck by the soberness of the event, by the simplicity of it and by the quiet dignity that surrounds the event,” he said. “It’s not meant to be clamour or something loud. It’s a meditation from start to finish.” <\/p>\n
Zucchi says he shares the views of religious leaders who are concerned about the law, but isn’t worried yet about its impact on the march in Montreal. <\/p>\n
“We’ve only encountered goodwill with the city, with the police service and count on that continued goodwill in the future,” he said.<\/p>\n
He also questioned what events will count as “public prayer.”<\/p>\n
“With the case of a procession done in silence, what constitutes prayer?” he asks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-581505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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