A petition with 13,000 signatures will be delivered to the Quebec government on Friday, urging the premier to retract his proposal to prohibit public prayer in the province.
CitizenGo, along with Campagne Québec-Vie, Unity Voice for Christian Values (UVVC), and local citizens have collected nearly 13,000 signatures opposing Francois Legault’s proposal to impose a blanket ban on public prayer in Quebec.
On December 6, Legault told media at the National Assembly that he would look for ways to ban public prayer, including using the notwithstanding clause to bypass the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in a bid to quash “Islamists” in Quebec.
“Seeing people praying in the streets is not something we want in Quebec,” Legault said.
The comments were made against the backdrop of the province suspending 11 teachers for allegedly “introducing Islamist religious concepts” to students at Bedford Elementary School in Montreal. The report from Quebec’s Ministry of Education said it found a “dominant clan” of teachers allegedly creating a “toxic environment” of “fear and intimidation” at the school.
“This petition represents nearly 13,000 citizens. The government has no business policing prayer. Banning it from public spaces is not just wrong — it’s authoritarian. We will not stand by while our Christian roots are erased,” Anne Brunette from CitizenGO sent in an email.
The petition claimed that if public prayer was banned in Quebec it could set a precedent for other provinces to further erode religious liberties in Canada.
Gregory Tomchyshyn, the campaigns director for CitizenGo told True North that Legault’s plans constitute a direct attack on religious freedom in Canada.
“It’s a Charter right. We’re guaranteed the right to freedom of expression and speech as well as the freedom of religion,” he told True North. “A prayer ban in public would not only infringe what you can say in public, but it would also infringe on your right to express your faith.”
He said Legault’s proposal is a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that current laws could otherwise address.
“The Quebec government takes the viewpoint of secularism. It’s their state religion. So they seem this is an issue, and they think the best way to fix it is by outright banning public prayer, instead of actually using federal and provincial laws and the Criminal Code in cases of what would essentially be public mischief.”
He said if the problem is Muslim prayer blockading rules, it’s already illegal to block traffic for example.
“If you’re rioting and destroying stuff, as we saw in Montreal multiple times last year get, bring out the riot police, enforce the law and maintain the peace,” Tomchyshyn said.
The petition stated that Quebec’s values are not secularist for everyone and noted Quebec’s deep Christian heritage and history.
“Canada — and Quebec in particular — needs prayer more than ever,” the petition said. “Silencing faith in public life will not bring unity. It will sow division and disconnect our people
from their cultural and spiritual heritage.”