PQ plans ban on religious symbols for schoolchildren

Quebec’s new education minister says the Parti Québécois government will ban schoolchildren from wearing religious symbols, a plan that Muslim, Sikh and Jewish representatives and an opposition party criticized on Wednesday and Thursday.

Joël Arseneau told journalists on Wednesday that he plans to ban students from wearing religious symbols and called the measure “non-negotiable,” The Canadian Press reported. It is unclear when the government will table a bill. The legislature is scheduled to resume sitting on Nov. 17.

The PQ promised the ban during the election campaign that produced its minority government. Its platform said secularism “embodies the desire of the vast majority of Quebecers to live in a society where religion is practised in the private sphere.”

Stephen Brown, the head of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the government is already breaking its pledge to govern for all Quebecers. “We’re talking about going after the rights of children to have a spirituality and go to school,” Brown said in an interview. He said the rules would mainly affect children who wear the kippa, hijab, crucifix or turban, and that he is prepared to mount a legal challenge if the proposal becomes law.

On Thursday, Muslim organizations and representatives of other religious communities gathered outside Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s downtown Montreal office, CityNews Montreal reported. Mehramat Kaur of the World Sikh Organization of Canada said she was disheartened and that some Sikh families could decide to leave Quebec. Rabbi Lisa Gruschow of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom said the measure would tell a Jewish child he cannot wear a kippah at school. The Canadian Muslim Forum has asked the government to reconsider.

Québec solidaire said it will vote against the ban. Its education and secularism critic, Roxane Milot, said in a news release that the party’s priorities are the staff shortage, school repairs and the dropout rate. “Leave the kids alone,” she said.

Jean-Christophe Jasmin, the Quebec director of the Christian think tank Cardus, also opposes the plan. He said the earlier rationale for restricting public employees, that they represent the state and must appear neutral, does not apply to children. “Children do not represent the state, they are part of civil society,” Jasmin said.

Quebec already bars public-sector employees in positions of authority, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols under its secularism law, known as Bill 21 or Law 21. That law is before the Supreme Court of Canada, where hearings have wrapped up. We have reported on the national debate over the law and on the government’s earlier refusal to rule out widening the ban to daycare workers.

Frédéric Bérard, a constitutional lawyer who took part in the challenge to Bill 21, declined to comment on Arseneau’s remarks but said the move was expected. “It’s never enough,” he said.

Arseneau’s department is also preparing États généraux on education in early 2027. He sits in the PQ cabinet sworn in on Oct. 21.

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