by Rick Plasterer, Juicy Ecumenism
The prohibition against public prayer looms on the horizon in the struggle over religious freedom in the Western world. In Quebec it may be expanded by secularists from bubbles around abortion facilities to public places generally. This general prohibition seems likely to be enacted soon in the province. The proposed Quebec Bill 9 in the Quebec National Assembly, which has been introduced by the ruling Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party, prohibits public prayer in streets, parks, universities, and government funded (which need not be public) institutions.
A Radical Reduction of Space for Religious Practice
Earlier, Quebec’s Bill 21 in 2019 prohibited public officials and teachers in public schools from wearing religious symbols while on duty. Bill 9 currently being considered would also prohibit the wearing of religious symbols by any school employee or student, employees in daycare centers, and prohibit “collective religious practices” (in particular prayer) in public spaces, and as well as prayer rooms in universities or other public institutions, as Paul Marshall of the Hudson Institute pointed out in the linked article. It would seem that this might prohibit street preaching, since if anyone listens, would be a “collective religious practice.”
Indeed, quite a lot of religious practice will be prohibited, as the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities listed at the beginning of December. Notably, the offering of prayer will be prohibited (even individual private prayer in schools, according to Decree 707-2023, noted below) in public institutions (or private institutions receiving state funding), in accredited private schools, and daycare centers receiving public funding. Religious institutions that serve the public, such as hospitals, cannot offer only food based on their own religious requirements. They must offer food the general public consumes as well. In general, it seems that a public square consisting of spaces outdoors, public institutions, and private institutions receiving government funding will be swept bare of any evidence of religion. Only private religious schools receiving no public funding will be free of the ban on religious activities.