FROLITICKS

The roots of the secularism movement in Québec date back to the 1940s and ’50s, when the Catholic Church wielded tremendous social and political influence.  For example, the province’s healthcare and education, had been extensively under the purview of the Catholic Church.  In the 1960s, the Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) was a period of major socio-political and socio-cultural transformation in Québec.  In particular, this period was marked by the secularization of the government, the separation of the state and the church, notably from the Catholic Church.  A primary change was an effort by the provincial government to assume greater control over public health care and education. To achieve this, the government established ministries of Health and Education, expanded the public service and made substantial investments in the public education system.

As part of Canada, Québec’s French language and Catholic religion are guaranteed under the Canadian constitution.  However, Québec has since also been formally recognized by the federal government as a “unique” nation within the Canadian confederation.  Indeed, the issue of maintaining the French language and culture in Québec has always been great concern, which was particularly heightened during the independence movements within the province surfacing during the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.  The election of the political party, the Parti Québecois (PQ) in 1976 brought the issue of potential Québec separation from Canada to the forefront.  As a result, the issue of secularism temporarily receded into the background.  That all changed on Sept. 11, 2001 as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York triggered a backlash against Islam, and in Québec in particular.  In the years following 9/11, media outlets in Québec began spotlighting – often with sensational headlines – what became known as the “reasonable accommodation crisis,” focusing on concessions made for religious groups.  In 2013, a minority PQ government proposed the notorious “charter of Québec values,” aiming to ban religious symbols for public servants, but it went nowhere after the PQ lost the 2014 election.

The reigning Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government, which was elected before there was a final decision on that bill, took its own stab at legislating “secularism”, reviving a watered-down version of the charter of values which eventually became Bill 21.  In 2019,  as Québec’s current secularism law, Bill 21 prevents some public servants, including judges, police officers, prosecutors and teachers, from wearing religious symbols while on the job.  Learning from previous projects, the CAQ tried to make Bill 21 legally bullet-proof by preemptively using Canada’s constitutional “notwithstanding clause” to override certain sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Last May, the Québec legislature also passed a bill requiring immigrants to embrace the common culture of the province.  The law can be used to withhold funding for groups, events that don’t promote Québec’s common culture.  The law appears to be Québec’s answer to the Canadian model of multiculturalism that promotes cultural diversity.

In November of this year, Bill 9, titled An Act Respecting the Reinforcement of Secularism in Québec, sets out to build on two previous secularism laws passed under Premier François Légault.  Indeed, this bill goes much further than the previous laws.  For example, it would ban subsidized daycare and private school workers from wearing religious symbols, such as a hijab or kippa; phase out public subsidies for religious private schools that select students or staff based on religious affiliation, or that teach religious content; and ban prayer spaces in public institutions including universities, as well as group prayers in public spaces such as parks without municipal authorization.

While one can understand the concept of secularism whereby the state is deemed separate from the church as a democratic principle, the Québec government’s initiatives and policies have taken extreme measures which are seen as targeting the rights of minorities.  In particular, they appear to be directed primarily at Québec’s Muslim population.  This targeting is especially interesting since Muslim Québecers, who mostly come from francophone countries, could be an important ally in a province that wants to preserve the French language and culture.

The government refers to this initiative as laicité which takes secularism one step further and is really about separating religion from the public sphere.  I would instead deem these broad initiatives to be a form of “acculturation.” Acculturation is where the state assimilates or causes to assimilate people to a different culture, normally the predominant one.  One thing that could either help settle the debate over these contentious policies — or perhaps exacerbate them even further — is the Supreme Court ruling on Bill 21 expected sometime next year.  Some see the current CAQ government’s initiative as more of a political distraction given Premier Légault’s unpopularity in recent polls and the upcoming provincial election next fall.  Even if the CAQ is defeated, the next government most probably led by the Parti Québecois will very likely continue the contentious policy of acculturation no matter what.