Quebec to expand religious symbol ban, force students to uncover faces

Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville explains why the province is expanding the secularism law in all public schools.

MONTREAL — In an effort to reinforce secularism in schools, the Quebec government is planning to expand the province’s ban on religious symbols to everyone who interacts with students.

A bill tabled Thursday would prohibit anyone who works in a school or on school property from wearing a religious symbol — including a hijab or a turban — on the job. It would also forbid students and staff from wearing face coverings.

The proposed law would be a significant expansion of the province's secularism rules, and comes after a controversy over allegations of religious practices in certain Quebec public schools. Education Minister Bernard Drainville has been promising for months to introduce new legislation to fight the spectre of religious influence in schools.

"I'm aware that this bill will cause disruption," he told reporters during a news conference in Quebec City on Thursday. "But honestly, we can't just sit back and do nothing."

Quebec's existing secularism law, known as Bill 21, bans the wearing of religious symbols only for public employees deemed to be in positions of authority, including teachers, judges and police officers. The new bill would update the province's Education Act to apply the ban to all public school staff, including daycare workers, school psychologists and cafeteria workers.

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. It would not apply to bus drivers, and like Bill 21, it includes a grandfather clause for people who are already employed.

“Any adult can be a figure of authority, and therefore no adults who are working within the school system should be allowed to wear a religious symbol," Drainville said.

In addition, the bill would forbid students and staff in public and private schools from wearing full face coverings, which Drainville called "a question of principle."

The Coalition Avenir Quebec government is responding to a flurry of concern over possible religious influence in Quebec schools, which began last October following an investigation of Montreal's Bedford elementary school. A government report detailed how a group of teachers, many of North African descent, had imposed autocratic rule at the school. Subjects such as science and sex education were either ignored or barely taught, and girls were prevented from playing soccer.

Premier François Legault dubbed the Bedford affair an attempt to "introduce Islamist religious concepts into a public school."

The province subsequently launched an investigation of more than a dozen other schools over claims they were breaking secularism rules. Auditors found only one violation of Quebec's secularism law, but noted other practices the government found troubling, including the fact that daycare workers and other staff were still permitted to wear religious symbols.

That investigation seems to have inspired much of the new bill, including the decision to prevent students from wearing face coverings. The auditors' report found a handful of students at one school were partially or fully covering their faces.

Stephen Brown, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the bill is "a solution looking for a problem." He said there were serious allegations at Bedford school, but the investigation of the other schools offered little cause for alarm. "It really feels unjust," he said. "Where does this end?"

But Drainville brushed off a reporter's question about whether the bill is an overreaction, calling the ban on face coverings a preventive measure. "We do not want this practice of the full veil to spread to other schools," he said.

The 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 Bill 21. In January, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal of Bill 21 from several groups who oppose the law and the pre-emptive use of the override clause.

The legislation would also require schools to evaluate teachers annually, and it would expand the requirement for employees at French-language schools to speak only in French with students and staff.

It would also tighten rules around religious accommodations. Students would not be permitted to be absent for religious reasons, for example, or to request kosher or halal food at cafeterias.

Harini Sivalingam, director of the equality program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said refusing religious accommodations could foster discrimination. "It's a draconian (bill) that will infringe fundamental rights and freedoms of teachers, staff and students in Quebec schools," she said.

The Centrale des syndicats du Québec, a union representing 125,000 education workers, also criticized the bill, claiming an expansion of the religious symbols ban would aggravate an existing labour shortage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.

— With files from Caroline Plante in Quebec City

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press