More people are reacting to Quebec’s plan to crack down on public prayer through a new law, with some completely denouncing the move and others praising it. Quebec’s minister responsible for secularism, Jean-François Roberge, said last week that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government intends to table a bill this fall to ban the practice. The scope of the proposed legislation is not yet known since few details have been announced. Here’s what some people from different faiths are saying about the prayer ban. Bruce Myers, Anglican Diocese of Quebec As the head of the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Bruce Myers said he wants to see exactly what the bill will say, but so far, he sees it as being “a very problematic law” that he believes is “a very heavy-handed solution to a problem that really doesn’t seem to exist.” “Who is going to determine what constitutes prayer? A government official? The impression is left from what Mr. Roberge has said and what Premier Legault has said in the past, that this is kind of based on the assumption that, you know, prayer is strictly an internalized thing that’s restricted to a specific time and place and that’s just not the case for any religious expression or faith community that I know,” Archbishop Myers told CTV News on Tuesday. Myers said he agreed with Archbishop Christian Lépine when he said the proposed law could very well violate people’s fundamental rights, including freedom of religion. “Something else that would be helpful in this discussion, I think, and the debate around this proposed law, is some concrete data that suggests that this is a recurring and serious problem within Quebec society,” he added. “And I haven’t seen any of that yet. It’s all anecdotal and seems to be based on the observations of the premier and maybe those around him, which makes me wonder if perhaps this law is really about something else, or a few other things.” Christian Lépine, Archdiocese of Montreal According to Roberge, the proliferation of street prayers is a “serious and sensitive issue in Quebec,” the minister said in a post on X last Thursday, adding: “Last December, our government expressed its unease with this increasingly prevalent phenomenon, especially in Montreal.” Several pro-Palestinian protests have taken place on Montreal streets to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to military strikes by Israeli forces. Some of those demonstrations have involved public prayer, including in the public square outside the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. Christian Lépine, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Montreal, said he has spoken to the pastor at the Basilica, who he said has no problem with Muslims praying outside his church. “They were in the public square. They were not on the street itself. So it was done respectfully. We can ask: why are they there? Why not somewhere else? But in the end, it’s their way to express their anguish to the whole of society and help that we will be hearing them,” Lépine said in an interview with CTV News. He cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the right to religious freedom, which he said society needs to rediscover. “It’s a challenge because there are often misunderstandings there. We know there’s war in some places in the world, so whether it’s in Ukraine, Middle East, and we know there are needs to express the sufferings or opinions about those events, but then to pray is also part of the expression,” the Archbishop said. He also expressed his views on the potential ban in an op-ed in La Presse, in which he said the measure would “compromise [the] very existence” of Catholic traditions held outside church walls, including the Way of the Cross and the Palm Sunday march. Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko, Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation In an interview Tuesday, Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko also agreed that religious freedom should be protected, but he has concerns about what he has seen in Montreal in recent years. “We have seen prayer used to disrupt normal public life. I see this legislation as being more pro-traffic than anti-prayer,” said Rabbi Poupko of Montreal’s Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation. “There are a lot of things you can’t do on René Lévesque [Boulevard], you can’t have a picnic on René Lévesque. That doesn’t mean people are having their freedoms restricted. Public welfare is an important goal and an important value, and we have seen in Montreal where religion has been used to disrupt normal life, where business life has been disrupted. Pedestrians have been disrupted. Traffic has been disrupted.” He also accused some protesters participating in pro-Palestinian protests of spewing hate speech, citing comments from Adil Charkaoui, a Montreal imam. The RCMP opened an investigation into his remarks from Oct. 14 and 28, 2023, in relation to the Israel-Hamas war. However, in May 2024, Quebec’s Crown prosecution office decided not to lay charges. The DPCP said in a statement that “after a rigorous analysis of the available evidence … it does not reveal the commission of a criminal offence.” “I don’t think anybody is worried about people praying outside their own churches or mosques or outside their synagogues or their own property. I don’t think anyone is bothered by that. I don’t think anyone is worried about, you know, things that happen very infrequently, a prayer in a park,” Rabbi Poupko said. “But when you start disrupting normal life, and you start disrupting traffic, and you start using prayer as a cover for violent speech, people begin to question whether or not we need some restrictions to strike the balance in a more useful way.” When asked about the pro-Palestinian protests, Montreal police said changes to the law in 2019 allow protesters to organize more spontaneous protests without the obligation of submitting a planned route or itinerary in advance, meaning permits are not required. “No individual or group is permitted to obstruct public circulation during demonstrations or public gatherings, including prayers, by blocking streets or access routes, unless a permit has been previously obtained from the borough where the event is planned. The right to protest or gather must be exercised in a manner that respects the safety and mobility of all citizens,” police spokesperson Samantha Velandia wrote in an email. She added: “Should the need arise, our officers are fully prepared to intervene to ensure that public order and freedom of movement are maintained.” A committee studying secularism in Quebec released a report last week that stopped short of recommending a blanket ban on public prayer. Instead, the group advised the Legault government to leave that to municipalities. Stephen Brown, National Council of Canadian Muslims For Stephen Brown, the proposed ban on praying in public is a clear attack on the Muslim community. “The target is absolutely the Muslim community because the exact same thing is happening with other communities but they don’t talk about it,” said Brown, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, in an interview with CTV News last week. He agreed with others who say the ban would surely violate fundamental freedoms. “What are we going to start doing in Quebec? Mandating that you get your messaging approved by the government before you’re given a permit to go protest?” he said. Brown, as well as former Quebec senator André Pratte and some political commentators, claimed that the prayer ban is purely a political move by the CAQ government. “This is a government that is looking for a win a year out from an election in order to boost its poll numbers,” Brown said. Pratte, in a post on the social media platform X, wrote: “Facing serious difficulties in the polls, the Legault government is desperately trying to regain points in public opinion by exploiting a profitable theme: fear of Muslims.” “Let’s be clear here: it’s not prayers in public places that are disturbing. ... No, what’s disturbing is Muslims who pray, in the same way that the ban on religious symbols really only targeted the Muslim head scarf.” In an interview last Thursday, Brown told The Canadian Press that protest tactics like Muslim prayers in front of the Basilica may be unwise in Quebec’s current political climate – but they should not be banned. “Why is it the only time when the government feels that there’s a problem is when all of a sudden you see Muslims praying in the streets?” he said. In an interview with QUB Radio last Friday, he agreed that any hateful speech during a public protest is unacceptable. “Hatred is completely unacceptable. The problem isn’t that they pray. The problem is hatred,” Brown said in an interview with the station. With files from CTV News Montreal’s Stephane Giroux and The Canadian Press
