Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville responds to reporters' questions, Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
MONTREAL – Quebec’s education minister is moving forward with a promise to ban prayer rooms in schools.
Bernard Drainville issued a directive late Wednesday saying schools must ensure that none of their spaces are used for religious practices, including prayer.
The order comes after Drainville said earlier this month that he had learned of at least two Montreal-area schools permitting students to gather for prayer.
He says schools are not places of worship and the concept of prayer rooms runs counter to Quebec’s policy of official secularism.
The directive notes that the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms recognizes freedom of religion but also the fundamental importance of secularism.
Drainville has said that he can’t ban prayer altogether and that students who want to pray should do so discreetly and silently.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.
