Quebec’s bastardized secularism

Reflections on religious bias in Quebec under the guise of secularism

Showcasing your religious symbols is only a problem when you are a minority. Graphic Emily Wolak

When I think about secularism, I find myself agreeing with the concept.

Legislating policies with the absence of religious influence is important as it highlights that no one faith is superior to another. However, secularism is greatly misrepresented in Quebec. In this province, secularism tends to mean the erasure of religion, a distortion of its true definition. 

I would firmly argue that Quebec is not a secular province at all. Quebec uses secularism to cover its racist and Islamophobic agendas. 

When Bill 21 was first introduced in 2019, my initial thought was, “Wow the Coalition Avenir Québec is really going to pass legislation to sow religious division in the name of secularism. That’s rich, considering Quebec is not even close to being a secular province.” Secularism seemed to only be used in conjunction with religious minorities, and not religion in general.

It’s imperative that we interrogate which religions these bills and ideas are most affecting. It’s clear that they primarily target Muslims and other religious minorities. 

When I speak to members of my family who are in favour of Bill 21, I realize that they only share this opinion insofar as it doesn’t impede on their Christian expressions. For them, secularism means the absence of all other religions because we are a Christian nation. In trying to explain that religious freedom and secularism are not mutually exclusive, the fallacious straw man argument of, “Well, in their countries, we’d have to abide by their customs, so they should do the same here.”

 This begs the question: Why are Muslims the ones mainly targeted? 

Ultimately, they are one of the most religiously visible people. And despite them being only 3 per cent of Quebec’s population, it highlights how our government is biased against religious minorities. Meanwhile, Catholics constitute 82 per cent of Quebec’s population.
Let’s take teachers as an example. New Muslim teachers won’t be permitted to wear a hijab. However, a Christian woman who wears a cross necklace can easily hide it. The reality is that these new rules and policies affect Muslims the most.

Religious minorities aren’t only affected by the ban on wearing religious symbols or objects. An often-forgotten example is statutory holidays. Many of them are based on Christian traditions like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. If Quebec was truly interested in secularism, wouldn’t they remove those as well? 

If Quebec was truly secular, couldn’t every public employee just receive five days they can choose to take off whenever works best for them? Why force everyone to have these days off on particular days, if we are planning on erasing religion and our freedom to express it? 

I was always made to understand that being secular just meant that not everyone had to worship the same way, that buildings aside from places of worship could not carry religious symbols.

The separation of religious beliefs and the state is promoted by Quebec, yet they chose to pass a bill that limits religious expression, which is frankly government overreach. 

If there is a separation, it should extend to policy making, and not based on how someone chooses to express their own freedoms on their own bodies. 

As a mom, I want my son to see folks of all kinds of religions, and be exposed to cultures different from our own. 

So, no, Quebec is not and never was secular; it simply wants to allow certain religious expressions to be valid while others are erased. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 8, published January 28, 2025.