Quebec to expand religious symbol ban, force students to uncover faces

The Quebec government has tabled a bill that would expand the province’s religious symbols ban to school staff beyond teachers.

The bill would update Quebec’s Education Act to also require students and staff to have their faces uncovered at school. 

It would require teachers to submit educational plans to school principals, who would have to evaluate teachers annually.

The bill would expand the requirement for employees at French-language schools to speak only in French with students and staff. 

Education Minister Bernard Drainville has for months promised legislation to strengthen secularism in schools following a controversy over reports of religious practices at several of the province’s public schools. 

Quebec’s secularism law, known as Bill 21, already prohibits public employees such as teachers and police officers from wearing religious symbols on the job. Drainville has suggested he could extend Quebec’s religious symbols ban to school staff. 

He says that religious accommodations have no place in Quebec schools, and that science, sex education and gender equality must be taught properly. 

Drainville says he was “stunned” to learn about the situation at Bedford elementary school in Montreal, after a government report last fall documented a toxic climate created by a group of teachers.

The government has since investigated more than a dozen other schools over allegations they were violating Quebec’s secularism rules.