Quebec set to introduce legislation prohibiting prayer rooms in public institutions

The Quebec government is expected to introduce a new bill today that significantly widens its secularism framework, adding several fresh prohibitions across the public sector. According to reporting from Radio-Canada, the legislation will propose banning prayer rooms in universities and CEGEPs, extending face-covering restrictions to educators in public and subsidized daycares, and prohibiting the use of religious symbols in official communications by public institutions. It would also prevent publicly funded institutions from offering meals based exclusively on a religious tradition.

The bill marks the latest step in the Legault government’s ongoing push to reinforce secularism — a theme it has aggressively pursued even as it struggles in the polls. Jean-François Roberge, the provincial minister responsible for secularism, teased the legislation earlier this week by posting a short video on X showing a draft of the bill with the caption “c’est comme ça qu’on vit au Québec” — meaning “this is how we live in Quebec.” This new move follows a string of expansions to Quebec’s secularism regime. Just one month ago, the government adopted a law forbidding religious symbols for any school employee who interacts with students, broadening Bill 21’s original 2019 restrictions on teachers, judges, police officers, and other public-facing authority figures.

Six years after Bill 21 first passed, the CAQ is once again pushing further into the space where religion intersects with public life, a debate that has grown increasingly charged. In October, the province extended its ban on religious symbols in schools, prompting renewed criticism from civil liberties advocates and minority religious communities. Part of the backdrop is a 2023 investigation into a Montreal elementary school, where a group of teachers were found to have imposed an autocratic environment and appeared to influence students with their religious views.

That report resurfaced concerns about the need for clearer rules governing the role of religion in state-funded institutions — concerns the government has used to justify its ongoing expansions. The bill expected today is likely to reignite the secularism debate in Quebec, sharpening questions about identity, minority rights, and the CAQ’s political strategy ahead of the next election.