{"id":99297,"date":"2025-08-28T19:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/99297\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T19:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:29:21","slug":"quebec-plans-to-table-bill-banning-prayer-in-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/99297\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec plans to table bill banning prayer in public"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Quebec government intends to present a bill banning prayer in public.<\/p>\n

Secularism Minister Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Roberge\u00a0said in a statement Thursday that the “proliferation of street prayer is a serious and sensitive issue.”<\/p>\n

“The premier of Quebec has given me the mandate to strengthen secularism, and I am determined to fulfil this mandate diligently,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This fall, we will therefore introduce a bill to strengthen secularism in Quebec, in particular by banning street prayers.”<\/p>\n

His statement follows months of efforts by the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government to reinforce secularism in the province, which includes adopting a law that requires immigrants\u00a0to embrace the common culture<\/a> of the province\u00a0and tabling a bill to expand the province’s religious symbols law to include school support staff.<\/a><\/p>\n

The statement from Roberge on Thursday provided no details as to how the government would legislate against prayer in public, but\u00a0Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault\u00a0has said his government would not rule out using the notwithstanding clause.<\/p>\n

“Seeing people praying in the streets, in public parks, is not something we want in Quebec,” Legault said in December, saying he wanted to send a “very clear message to Islamists.”<\/p>\n

“When we want to pray, we go to a church, we go to a mosque, but not in public places. And yes, we will look at the means where we can act legally or otherwise.”<\/p>\n

Legault’s Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0government has been suffering in opinion polls and recently lost its third consecutive byelection to the sovereignist\u00a0Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois.<\/p>\n

Legault himself is slated to appear next week at a public inquiry examining the mismanagement of the SAAQclic platform. The platform\u00a0was intended to digitize some auto insurance board services but it went more than $500 million over budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quebec should focus\u00a0on ‘solving real problems’<\/p>\n

Images of Muslims praying in\u00a0Montreal made\u00a0headlines last summer<\/a>, and, last month, a viral video\u00a0showing\u00a0Muslims praying outside the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal\u00a0garnered more than 85,000 likes on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But members of other faiths also hold public events in Quebec, including the Way of the Cross procession led by the Catholic Archbishop of Montreal on Good Friday.<\/p>\n

In a scathing statement, the Canadian Muslim Forum said street prayers are a manifestation of freedom of expression. Banning them, the CMF said,\u00a0would stigmatize communities and undermine social cohesion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At a time when Quebecers are struggling with a health-care system,\u00a0SAAQclic fiasco, skyrocketing housing costs\u00a0and rising living expenses, the CAQ government should be focused on solving real problems, not policing the fundamental rights of its citizens,” the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois,\u00a0said he was not opposed to legislation banning prayer in public spaces, but he questioned why it had taken Legault so long to present a law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The premier tells us that he has been thinking about the issue of street prayers for a year. Why has he done nothing?” Plamondon said.<\/p>\n

Committee report didn’t recommend public prayer ban<\/p>\n

Roberge’s announcement on public prayer also comes just days after an advisory committee recommended the government expand its secularism law, known as Bill 21, to bar early childhood educators in the province’s subsidized daycare network from wearing religious symbols.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The committee, chaired by Guillaume Rousseau and Christine Pelchat, two lawyers that have previously defended Bill 21 in court, did not, however, recommend the government ban prayer in public, suggesting instead that it leave the issue to individual municipalities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The committee’s nearly 300-page report, the product of a five-month review, does broach the subject of public prayer, but it says municipalities already have the “necessary competences” to regulate collective street prayer and it says Bill 21 gives them additional powers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The committee is concerned about these issues, just as it is concerned about respect for individual freedoms,” the report says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our position is one of moderation, striking a balance between the risks of abuses that run counter to Quebec’s collective values and the preservation of religious practices that do not unduly interfere with public order and respect the purpose of public spaces, which must be accessible to the entire population.”<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Roberge said the committee’s report played a role in the decision to present a new bill banning public prayer.<\/p>\n

“Thanks to the discussions in caucus and the committee’s report, our reflections on several aspects of secularism are well advanced,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Quebec government intends to present a bill banning prayer in public. Secularism Minister Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Roberge\u00a0said in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-99297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}