The Current - What’s behind Quebec’s sweeping secularism bill

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

The Quebec government tabled a new secularism legislation that would impose strict rules about religious expression in public. This comes on top of the current ban of religious symbols worn by teachers, judges and police officers. The province says the changes will ensure equality, but religious groups argue the opposite is happening. We speak with Michel C. Auger, columnist at La Presse and a regular commentator for Radio-Canada about the implications of this law.

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because we think that when the state is neutral, Quebecers are free. That's Quebec's minister responsible for secularism, Jean-François-Roberge. Yesterday, that province's government tabled new legislation that would impose stricter rules about religious expression in public.

Michel C.OG is a columnist at La Press, regular commentator for Raja Canada. He joins us now to talk further about this and the context that these laws emerge in, Michelle, good morning. Good morning, man. When you take a look at these new measures in this new secularism bill, to Jean-François-Roberge's point, this is more secularism in the province.

What stands out to you? More of the same, because basically you cannot subtract the electoral part of this bill. this, we're in election year in Quebec, the election will be in the next October, and the first secularism bill was very popular, so they're doing a bit more of the same, basically to remind voters who liked the first bill that, hey, we're the people who brought you that secularism bill. So they tightened a little bit all of the bolts of the previous bill to make, to make the impression that they're taking that still very seriously.

They're targeting daycare workers, kosher and halal meals, prayer rooms. Some of the rules are a bit tricky to understand. So journalists at Minister Robertius' press conference yesterday were looking for some clarification. Let's have a listen to what he was asked about what these rules actually mean. Would there still be allowed Christmas parties and Hanukkah parties in the school systems? What are your rules? It depends if those are, can be considered like, I'll say in French. It will depend if it's what I would say,

of the transmission of the faith or the manifestations religious. So, just to translate, if I get that correctly, it depends if the Christmas or Hanukkah parties are proselytizing or religious events. Is that right? Yeah, that's it. What does that mean? I'm not too sure. Sure.

To be honest, basically what the government wants to do is to say any public manifestation of fate of religion or something like that, it has to be done in private. Then, you know, there are all sorts of questions you could ask, like is Christmas or Hanukkah party a problem? He says no, but it cannot be in public. It must be and not be a religious event. Why do you think the government, I mean, there's a needle that they're trying to thread here, and it's a pretty fine hole to some people. Why do you think the government says this legislation is necessary now? It's basically, it's all related to the government's very bad showing in the polls right now.

They might be wiped out completely from the National Assembly if this continues. So they are doing not only on secularism, but on language, on other things. They're saying, oh, you like the first bill we did on this? We'll do another one to make it even more secular and more. And this all has to do with the coming election and very little to do with public policy. How popular are these sorts of measures in Connecticut? Well, they were popular, but they were popular. But if you're not in the minority, and if you're in a majority of, I think, of Quebecers who are atheists, they're quite popular.

And there is an history of religion taking too much place in Quebec society, but, you know, the 1950s are over now. But the government was, there is within the electric of the party in power, people who actually like that a lot. And this is the people they're trying to bring back to their party. To your point, though, the 1950s were a long time ago. And Quebec now is very different than it was decades ago. There has been very strong reaction from faith communities, from civil libertarians as well. How much traction is the concern that they have? I mean, people within minority religious communities who feel as though they're being targeted.

How much traction is that getting within the province? Unfortunately, not much. The government is using, again, the notwithstanding clause from the, the Constitution in advance. So it's in the bill and says that's something that will go before the course very soon, in fact. But they're saying basically we're using the notwithstanding clause even though there was there hasn't been a challenge to the bill.

So it's basically to discourage any challenges to the bill. But that also is very popular because for the CACS electorate, because people say, oh, this is government that's really strong. and then won't let the Charter of Rights be a problem. Why is the coalition of New Quebec? Why is Francois Lago so unpopular right now, do you think? Oh, it has nothing to do with these bills. It has to do with the economic situation in general.

And also the fact that they gambled a lot of money on battery projects that all fizzled, you know, at some point there was supposed to be this huge battery factory that would, a car factory factory that was going to be built near Montreal. It was the biggest private investment in the history of the province. There was a lot of money that was supposed to be given to that company. And the projects completely fizzled. The company, the Swedish company went bankrupt.

So people are looking at the promises the CAC made and the results. And they don't quite like what they see. And so they might be looking for other options. The interesting story here is that the liberals, which may have been one of those options, seem to be engulfed in their own internal crisis right now. The anti-corruption police apparently are considering an investigation. So where does that leave the liberals? And where does that leave the PQ, the party of Guayquois?

The liberals are in deep trouble since the election of their new leader, Pablo Rodriguez. Who left the federal liberals to go and be the savior of that. party in some way. Well, the savior is not saving a lot, this way. He doesn't seem to have what it takes to be a leader. And that's what, there's sort of a buyer's remorse in the liberal party saying, what? What did we do? But every time he makes the news conference or makes a statement, his poll numbers go down. So it's very tricky for the liberals right now. They have a new leader, but the new leader doesn't seem to be performing very much, very well. So that's one thing.

The PQ is at top of the polls. But again, we are in a situation of five political parties in Quebec. So you can get a majority of seats in the National Assembly with 34, 35 percent of the vote. That will be a problem for the PQ if they have a former government, is that they're promising a referendum, another referendum in sovereignty. By 2030. By 2030. when you are elected with 35, 36%, you're far away from 50 plus 1.

So that will be a problem for the PQ if they formed the government. We have a year to decide that. Because I have you on the line and you are just such a brilliant interpreter of what's going on in Quebec, can I ask you one other question that's not connected with provincial politics but with federal politics? We saw yesterday this grand bargain, the deal between the federal government and the province of Alberta when it comes to energy, includes a possible pipeline, a step too far for the former minister of the environment, Quebec MP, their Quebec lieutenant, Lieutenant Stephen Gilbeau, who is left cabinet walking out, saying that he cannot, he cannot stomach this, he cannot support this.

What does that mean in Quebec? And how much damage do you think this could cause the liberal party in a province that in many ways help propel them to power? Stephen Gilbo is a controversial figure, but he is very popular in some parts of public opinion. He's known as someone who has very strong principles when it comes to the environment, when it comes to decarbonation, and he's quite admired for that. So it will have an effect. But the problem in here is that, you know, for it. For example, there's not much options for Quebec to vote for a federalist party right now. The NDP had their quote, unquote, French debate, a candidate debate yesterday in Montreal.

The radios are full of incomprehensible clips that are taken from that debate because the candidates basically don't speak French. You don't do a French debate when you don't have candidates to speak French. That's not very good marketing, is it? So that's for the NDP. The Conservatives, Mr. Poyev, is not popular at all in this province. So basically your choices between Mr. Carney and the Block Quebecois. At some point in time, Carney was the most popular politician in this province. It's not true anymore.

And I think that is stand on the environment, on pipelines, on, you know, more, extraction of oil and all that is part of that unpopularity. It's great to talk to you always. Your insight is so valuable. Michel, thank you very much. Thank you, bye-bye. Michel Céarge is a political columnist La Press, regular commentator for Raja Canada.

This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.c.c.com. slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.