Quebec says it will ban prayer in public, a move that civil rights groups described as an \u201calarming measure\u201d that targets religious minority groups and would infringe on \u201cbasic democratic freedoms\u201d.<\/p>\n
The province\u2019s secularism minister, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Roberge, said the move had been prompted by the \u201cproliferation of street prayer\u201d which he described as \u201ca serious and sensitive issue\u201d adding that the government had watched with \u201cunease\u201d. Roberge said the government would introduce legislation in the fall.<\/p>\n
The announcement follows public statements from Quebec\u2019s premier, Fran\u00e7ois Legault, who expressed mounting frustration over public prayers in the province\u2019s largest city, Montreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see people praying in the street, in public parks, this is not something we want in Quebec,\u201d he said last year. \u201cWhen you want to pray, you go in a church or a mosque, not in a public place.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more than half a year, the group Montreal4Palestine has organized Sunday protests outside the city\u2019s Notre-Dame Basilica that include public prayer. The demonstrations have also prompted counterprotests.<\/p>\n
Legault\u2019s governing Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec has made secularism a key legislative priority, passing the controversial Bill 21 in 2019.<\/a><\/p>\n That law, which runs afoul of both Quebec\u2019s charter of human rights and freedoms and Canada\u2019s charter of rights and freedoms, bars judges, police officers, prison guards and teachers from wearing religious symbols while at work. Other public workers such as bus drivers, doctors and social workers must only keep their faces uncovered.<\/p>\n In 2021, Quebec\u2019s superior court upheld the statute despite a finding that the law violates the freedom of expression<\/a> and religion<\/a> of religious minorities. Governments in Canada can pass laws that breaches certain fundamental rights if they use a legal mechanism known as a the \u201cnotwithstanding clause\u201d.<\/p>\n It is unclear if the province would once again invoke the clause when passing legislation on public prayer.<\/p>\n The Canadian Muslim Forum said the provincial government should be focusing on \u201creal problems, not policing the fundamental rights of its citizens\u201d instead of putting in place policies that would \u201cstigmatize communities, fuel exclusion, and undermine Quebec\u2019s social cohesion\u201d.<\/p>\n The push to ban public prayer follows a detailed report by the province\u2019s independent committee studying how to strengthen secularism. Among the 50 recommendations, the committee suggested extending the religious symbols ban to daycare workers. Notably, the report did not call for a province-wide ban on public prayer and new tools to protect universities from being compelled to install prayer rooms. Instead, it found municipalities already have the \u201cnecessary competences\u201d to enforce rules surrounding street prayer.<\/p>\n The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said banning prayer in public spaces would infringe on freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.<\/p>\n \u201cSuppressing peaceful religious expression, individually or communally, under the guise of secularism not only marginalizes faith-based communities but also undermines principles of inclusion, dignity and equality,\u201d said Harini Sivalingam, director of equality program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.<\/p>\n Despite the outrage from civil rights and advocacy groups, the move has support from other political leaders.<\/p>\n The Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose party is leading in public polling, called public prayers an \u201cappropriation of public space by religious fundamentalists\u201d and pledged to hold an internal referendum to determine his party\u2019s formal position on the issue.<\/p>\n Still, the issue is likely to once again revive fierce debate over the scope and reach of the government\u2019s focus on secularism.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us be clear here: it is not prayers in public places that are disturbing; Catholics have been praying in public for decades and no one has ever protested, even though Quebecers have thrown religion in the trash,\u201d Andr\u00e9 Pratte, a former journalist and senator, posted on X<\/a>. \u201cNo, what is disturbing is Muslims who pray, in the same way that the ban on religious signs was really aimed only at the Muslim headscarf.\u201d<\/p>\n Pratte said there was \u201cno need for a new legislative arsenal that will make a religious practice disappear from public space\u201d and that the latest push reflected an unpopular government \u201cdesperately trying to regain points in public opinion\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec says it will ban prayer in public, a move that civil rights groups described as an \u201calarming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-383305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115113882068515171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}