Quebec to table a bill banning prayer rooms in universities, religious meals in public institutions, and religious symbols in official communications, expanding 2019 secularism law.
Newsroom (26/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) The Quebec government is set to table a major new bill on Thursday that significantly expands the province’s secularism framework, extending restrictions on religious expression into universities, CEGEPs, and broader public communications, multiple provincial media outlets have confirmed.
The legislation builds directly on the 2019 Bill 21, which already prohibits teachers, police officers, judges, and other public employees in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols—including hijabs, turbans, kippahs, and large crosses—while on duty.
Key measures in the forthcoming bill include:
- A province-wide ban on designated prayer rooms in universities and CEGEPs;
- Restrictions on public institutions offering religious-based meals;
- A prohibition on any religious symbols appearing in official communications by public bodies.
The bill emerges from a broader government push, launched in October 2024, to further reinforce state secularism after reports of Islamic influence in several Montreal-area public schools and large street prayers linked to pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government has also been examining a potential ban on prayer in all public spaces, though it remains unclear whether that measure will be included in Thursday’s legislation.
Religious leaders have voiced concern that the expanding rules could inadvertently target longstanding Christian traditions. The Quebec Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently opposed such laws. When Legault first floated a public-prayer ban last year, Trois-Rivières Bishop Martin Laliberté published an open letter declaring, “Prayer is not dangerous.”
In Quebec City, the Very Rev. Christian Schreiner, Dean of the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, expressed uncertainty about the annual Good Friday Way of the Cross procession he organizes through the historic district—an event that gained prominence after Cardinal Gérald Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec, began participating.
Schreiner told the Register earlier this year that organizers view the walk as distinct from “praying in public space,” describing it as “just walking and carrying a Cross.” Still, he acknowledged the looming legislation raises questions.
“We continue this because obviously there is no policy,” he said, adding that the procession “might be interesting as a case study if somebody from the CAQ would say, ‘Hey, why are you walking with the Cross in old Quebec?’”
The tabling of the bill is expected Thursday in the National Assembly.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Catholic Register
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