Launch of a new OIRQ study:
Secularism in Quebec: Who Benefits from the Debate?
A socio-historical account of the construction of a public problem
Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, September 17, 2025
When: Thursday, September 18 at 6 p.m.
Where: Café les Oubliettes, 6201 Rue de Saint-Vallier, Montréal, QC H2S 2P6
A new study conducted by the Observatoire des inégalités raciales au Québec (OIRQ) will be officially launched tomorrow. The report shows how Bill 94, presented by the Quebec government as a measure to strengthen secularism in schools, extends a longstanding tendency to use this principle not to protect state neutrality, but to redefine the boundaries of national belonging.
“With the introduction of Bill 94, which tightens restrictions related to secularism in schools, we are witnessing a pivotal moment in this social debate,” explains Fella Hadj Kaddour, researcher at OIRQ. “This reform follows in the footsteps of Bill 21 and continues to create a two-tiered citizenship, where some groups are granted only limited status—conditional upon the erasure of their religious and cultural identities.”
From the Bedford case to a ‘crisis’ of secularism
The government justifies this reform by invoking the Bedford case, where allegations circulated against teachers accused of imposing religious norms. Yet official investigations showed no systemic violation of secularism in this matter. The issues identified related to internal governance, not religious interference.
The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission also warned against the risk of fundamental rights violations under this bill. Despite these warnings, the government decided to proceed, even invoking the notwithstanding clause.
A significant semantic shift
The analysis of more than 1,700 published articles between October 2024 and April 2025 on the Bedford case reveals a notable shift: while the local issue initially focused on workplace climate and governance, media vocabulary shifted toward framing it as a “crisis of secularism.” Mentions of internal governance issues declined, while “secularism” became the central term.
“This shift reframes a local issue into a national identity crisis, obscuring the real problems—lack of resources, internal tensions—that continue to undermine schools,” observes Geneviève Vande Wiele Nobert, researcher at OIRQ.
The transformation of secularism’s meaning
The study shows that secularism, virtually absent from public debate before the 1990s, became an identity issue in the 2000s, often linked to immigration and fears of Islam. This shift—what the authors call “narrative secularism”—turns a legal principle into a national story opposing a “we” to a “they,” often associated with Muslims.
For an inclusive secularism
“Rethinking secularism does not mean abandoning it,” concludes Geneviève Vande Wiele Nobert, researcher at OIRQ. “It means refusing to let it be used as a tool of exclusion and instead building a school founded on inclusion, justice, and equality.”
