Disturbing the Public Peace

"The multiplication of prayers in the street is a serious and sensitive issue in Quebec."

"Last December our government expressed its malaise in the face of this phenomenon, which is more and more present in Montreal."

"The premier of Quebec gave me a mandate to reinforce laicity and I have the firm intention of fulfilling this mandate with diligence."

"This fall we will table legislation to reinforce laicity in Quebec, including the banning of prayers in the streets." 

Jean-Francois Roberge, Minister Responsible for Laicity, Quebec Legislature

 

"To see people praying in the street, in public parks, this is not something we want in Quebec."

"When you want to pray, you go in a church, or a mosque, not in a public place."

Quebec Premier Ferancois Legault 

Muslims pray outside McGill University during an anti-Israel protest in Montreal on October 7, 2024 — the one year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.  John Mahoney/Postmedia/File

 

Legislation is in the planning stages in the Quebec Assembly so that repeats of the frequent calls to public prayer by pro-Palestinian protest organizers with their tendency to block traffic while insisting on their human rights and free speech entitlements to assemble and pray en masse in public parks, at traffic intersections, in front of churches, such as has become common in front of Montreal's Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica. These organized theatrical displays of Muslim contempt for churches have not sat well with Quebecers who are now signalling their grievance against the main organizer, Montreal4Palestine.

 

A government advisory committee tasked by the government of Quebec to study the situation and to arrive at solutions and recommendations on how to handle the disruptions caused by those claiming to represent the interests of Palestinians while demonizing Israel, claiming it is responsible for a 'genocide' against Palestinians in Gaza, following the terrorist Hamas group's October 7 border infiltration and  assault by thousands of Hamas operatives, alongside opportunistic Palestinian civilians wreaking savage atrocities against women and children and the elderly in southern Israel. 

 

The advisory committee recommended, among its 50 other suggestions, that the matter of how best to handle the outpourings of condemnation of Israel -- and support of Gaza's Hamas terror group as having stood  up to the 'brutal occupiers of Palestinian land' -- by leaving the issue to the discretion of involved municipalities. That hands-off recommendation to the Quebec government was, however, not well received, leading to the decision to handle it directly for the  entire province.

 

The news of impending legislation saw a response from the Canadian Muslim Forum, stating its deep concern with the situation. "A blanket ban would stigmatize communities, fuel exclusion, and undermine Quebec's social cohesion", their statement thundered, without a hint of concession over the fact that this is precisely what the Muslim groups in Canada have been doing to the lives of Canadian Jews over the space of several years with their frequent and ongoing protest campaigns...stigmatizing the Jewish community, fuelling exclusion, and undermining civil social cohesion. 

 

Protesters gather in front of Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal on July 20, 2025 in response to Muslim prayer gatherings that happened outside the basilica on Sundays.

 

 The report of the investigative committee made it clear that their scenario recommendation on the state of secularism in the province would be best accomplished leaving the matter on public prayers to the cities themselves to solve. Drafting a policy that would create a framework for the use of public spaces by religious groups. The advisory committee made clear their efforts to strike a balance between upholding Quebec's collective values and "the preservation of religious practices that do not unduly harm public order". 

 

However, the Coalition Avenir Quebec caucus of the ruling provincial government, which had met several weeks earlier to discuss the laicity issue had made their decision. That their reflections on the issue had already become "quite advanced" was made clear. Whether the ban would cover places off limits to group prayers other than in front of churches, to include parks or even, for that matter, specifying which faiths would be specifically included by the ban was left to conjecture. 

 

Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal. Bells at the church ring on the hour between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes