Canada’s Quebec to ban religious attire, including turbans and niqabs, in elementary schools

The new government in the Canadian province of Quebec has announced that it will prohibit all religious coverings, including turbans and niqabs, from elementary schools, in a move that adds restrictions to those already in existence. “It’s non-negotiable. This is what we were elected to do,” Education Minister Joël Arseneau said, when asked if his party will stand firm on its electoral promise to ban elementary students from wearing religious symbols in schools. “We’ll work to get it done.” The separatist Parti Québécois came into power in the provincial election held in October and the ban on school children wearing overt religious attire was part of its platform.

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It builds on further restrictions enacted in April this under the previous Coalition Avenir Québecor (CAQ) government. That banned religious practice in public universities, private institutions subsidised by the government, even child car centres, the Gazette reported at the time. It also prohibits collective religious practices on roads or in parks. The process of barring religious attire in public spaces began in 2019 under the CAQ government. The secularism law prohibited certain categories of public servants from displaying a visible symbol of faith like the Sikh turban or a Muslim woman’s hijab.

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In a statement, Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, Quebec spokesperson and Director of Fundamental Freedoms at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), said Quebec had “progressively expanded restrictions on religious expression” after it “first banned certain public sector employees” then extended it to “staff at public schools, publicly funded private schools, and public or publicly funded daycare centres.” “Once again, we’re faced with a solution in search of a problem. And this time, the Quebec government is targeting children, sending a message of exclusion and rejection of difference to every elementary school student,” McNicoll said.

In a statement, the Conseil National des Québécois Musulmans (CNQM) said that Arseneau’s announcement “has raised serious concerns about religious freedom, equal access to public education and the place of religious minorities in Quebec society.” School leaders have also warned that such a prohibition could undermine relationships between schools and families and that targeting children is not a good public policy goal, the statement said. CNQM CEO Stephen Brown challenged the message the policy would send to kids, saying the move was an attack on children and their right to spirituality. “That they’re not a member of society,” he said. “And that they are second-class citizens.”