Freedom advocates send ‘demand letter’ over Quebec’s proposed prayer ban
"When we want to pray, we go to church, we go to a mosque, but not in public spaces," Premier Legault told reporters on Friday. "And yes, we will look at the means where we can act legally or otherwise."
Freedom advocates with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms have sent the Québec government a demand letter, opposing a proposed ban on public prayer.
Premier François Legault told reporters Friday that “people kneeling in the street praying” is something he doesn’t think “we should be seeing.”
The province is looking into legislation advancing another law on secularism, which may include use of the notwithstanding clause. It follows a ban on religious symbols for public employees and language law reforms.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault says "people kneeling in the street praying" is something he doesn't think "we should be seeing," adding that his government is looking into legislation to address the issue. pic.twitter.com/niuDxdlLT4
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) December 6, 2024
In a demand letter to the Premier, constitutional lawyer Olivier Séguin wrote that a ban on public prayer would contradict the principles on which secularism laws are based.
Use of the notwithstanding clause would shield the prospective prayer ban from constitutional challenges for a period of five years.
“Your approach to the situation,” said Séguin, “suggests a militant, anti-religious and dogmatic conception of one of the healthiest and oldest practices that human beings have maintained in their relationships with their fellow human beings and with a higher power.”
“The ban on prayer,” he said, “borrows from the intolerant overtones of a state atheism that flourished east of the Iron Curtain during the twentieth century, and of which history has retained only sad memories.”
“In so doing, our government would be violating the principles of religious neutrality, equality and freedom of religion on which the secular state is supposed to be based.”
“When we want to pray, we go to church, we go to a mosque, but not in public spaces,” Legault told reporters. “And yes, we will look at the means where we can act legally or otherwise.”
This followed media reports of Muslims praying in classrooms at a school in Laval, Québec, and investigations by education officials in 17 schools over the past year.
“Such a ban is a totalitarian suppression of the freedoms of expression and of conscience and religion,” according to the Justice Centre.
More disinformation from Trudeau’s CBC state broadcaster.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) May 7, 2024
The notwithstanding clause doesn’t “shield a law from the Charter of Rights.”
It’s part of the Charter of Rights, section 33 to be exact.
Why does the CBC lie so much?
And why do all the lies go the same direction? pic.twitter.com/mwaCVjT2UE
According to an Angus Reid survey, 63% of Quebecers considered use of the notwithstanding clause “acceptable” – considerably more than any other province.
Since 2017, provinces have threatened to use Section 33 of the Charter to pass contentious legislation
Québec has invoked the clause twice in recent years to protect Bill 21, a ban on religious symbols for public employees, and language law reforms (Bill 96) from potential legal challenges.
The Quebec Court of Appeal has upheld Bill 21.
— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) February 29, 2024
The Court believes that the law is compatible with Article 23 of the Canadian Charter and does not affect the language education rights it grants to citizens belonging to Quebec's anglophone minority.
Will this go to the Supreme… pic.twitter.com/VBnfv8elXj
Bill 21, in particular, has received criticism nationwide, even from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who maintains “Quebecers are not racists.” Following a court challenge, the Québec Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the contentious law.
Trudeau previously acknowledged the province’s complicated history with religion, referencing the oppression of the Catholic Church before the Quiet Revolution that removed the church from government services, including health care and education.
Trudeau clarified that Canadians must understand Quebecers “suffered the yoke and the attacks on individual rights and freedoms of an oppressive church.”
“And that comes with it a certain perspective around what secularism is, and the role of religion in society that informs what modern Quebec is,” he said.
Alex Dhaliwal
Journalist and Writer
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
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