Quebec bill would expand religious symbol ban, force students to uncover faces
By Canadian Press on March 20, 2025.
MONTREAL — The Quebec government has tabled new legislation that would expand the province’s religious symbols ban to all school staff.
Introduced Thursday, the bill would prohibit anyone who works in schools or around students from wearing religious symbols on the job. The ban would also extend to people who are not school employees but who regularly offer services to students, such as volunteers at a school library.
Quebec’s legislation would be a significant expansion of the province’s existing religious symbols ban, which currently applies only to public employees in positions of authority, such as teachers and police officers. The bill would update the province’s Education Act, and also require students and staff to have their faces uncovered at school.
The Quebec government has invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to shield the bill from constitutional challenges, as it did with the secularism law, known as Bill 21, that first imposed a ban on religious symbols.
As well, the legislation would require teachers to submit educational plans to school principals, who would have to evaluate teachers annually. And it would further expand the requirement for employees at French-language schools to speak only in French with students and staff.
Education Minister Bernard Drainville has for months promised legislation to strengthen secularism in schools following a controversy over reports of religious practices at several of the province’s public schools.
Last October, a government report found that a group of teachers at Bedford elementary school in Montreal had imposed autocratic rule at the school. It found that teachers yelled at and humiliated students. Subjects like science and sex education were either ignored or barely taught, and girls were prevented from playing soccer.
Since then, the government has investigated more than a dozen other public schools over allegations of religious practices. The investigation found few breaches of the province’s secularism rules, but suggested the government review the list of employees covered by the religious symbols ban.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.
Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press
13-12
Soooo . . . terrorist funded protesters can foment hate, burn our Canadian flag, scream death to Canada, death to the Jews, destroy property on campuses like McGill in Quebec with faces covered, but they cannot wear face coverings or religious symbols in schools . . . I am sorry but where is the common sense? Hate speech has been allowed across Quebec . . . what was done . . . very little . . . some of the Criminal Code laws below!
Criminal Code:
Section 318 (1):
Advocating or promoting genocide against an identifiable group is a criminal offense.
Section 319 (1):
Publicly inciting hatred against an identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is a criminal offense. This means someone is found guilty if they made statements in a public place with the intention of stirring up or encouraging hatred against a particular group, and that incitement is likely to lead to a public disturbance.
Section 319 (2):
Wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group, other than in private conversation, is a criminal offense. This includes statements that are spoken, written, or recorded, and can include gestures, signs, photographs, and drawings.
Section 319 (2.1):
Wilfully promoting antisemitism by condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust is a criminal offense.
Private Speech:
The Criminal Code provisions do not apply to private conversations.
“Identifiable Group”:
The Criminal Code defines an “identifiable group” as a group of people who are defined by a common characteristic, such as race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability.
Other Relevant Information:
Freedom of Expression:
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects freedom of speech or expression, but this is subject to reasonable limits.
Hate-Motivated Crimes:
While there isn’t a specific “hate crime” in the Criminal Code, there are many other offences that the public often refer to as hate crimes, which police refer to as hate-motivated or bias-motivated crimes.
Provincial and Territorial Laws:
Some provinces and territories have their own statutory provisions relating to hate publications
Bill C-63:
Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, introduces significant changes to the Criminal Code, including a new definition of “hatred,” a new hate crime of “offence motivated by hatred,” and stronger sentences for existing hate propaganda offences.
Peace Bonds:
Changes to the Criminal Code would allow any person who reasonably fears that someone will commit a hate propaganda offence or hate crime to seek a court-ordered peace bond to be imposed on that person.