Quebec passes expanded secularism law targeting daycare workers, public prayer

The Quebec government adopted legislation on Thursday that puts limits on praying in public and extends a ban on wearing religious symbols to daycare workers.

Bill 9, titled An Act respecting the reinforcement of laicity in Quebec, builds on two previous laws passed under Premier François Legault.

Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec, as well as the Parti Québécois, voted in favour of the legislation, while the Liberals and Québec Solidaire voted against.

The law will:

• Ban subsidized daycare workers from wearing religious symbols, with a clause exempting those already in their position.
• Prohibit public institutions, such as hospitals, from only offering food based on a religious tradition, such as halal or kosher meals.
• Phase out public subsidies for religious private schools that select students or staff based on religious affiliation.
• Ban prayer spaces in public institutions including universities, with some exceptions, as well as group prayers in public spaces such as parks without municipal authorization.

Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s minister responsible for secularism, said when he tabled the bill last fall that it was an attempt to ensure the “religious neutrality of the state” and “equality for all citizens.”

The bill also invokes the notwithstanding clause pre-emptively, shielding it from challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It’s the latest in a series of secularism laws passed in Quebec. Last October, the government also adopted a law banning religious symbols worn by any school employee who interacts with a student.

That law expanded on Bill 21, which banned religious symbols worn by public employees deemed to be in positions of authority, including teachers, judges and police officers.

Bill 21, passed in 2019, is subject to a Supreme Court challenge. Arguments were heard in March, and a decision isn’t expected for several months.

Like its predecessors, Bill 9 has been criticized by religious groups and civil liberties advocates as an attack on minorities for political gain.

The Ligue des droits et libertés, a civil liberties group, said the new rules will have “disastrous consequences” for many Quebecers.

“It is as if we are telling today’s Quebec society that it is legitimate for a government, in the name of its majority, to openly flout the rights of certain minorities,” Paul-Étienne Rainville, the group’s political affairs officer, said in a statement.

The law was passed on Legault’s final day at the National Assembly as premier. He will stay on as MNA of L’Assomption after the his party chooses a successor to replace him — as party leader and premier — on April 12.

WATCH | Supreme Court hears Bill 21 arguments:

Supreme Court hears arguments about Quebec’s secularism law

The Supreme Court of Canada heard the first arguments in a case centred around Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans some public sector workers from wearing religious symbols. The court’s ruling could impact how governments across Canada use the notwithstanding clause to override charter rights.