Shhhh Keep this quiet.
I wasn't sure I heard it correctly. It almost snuck past me. My good friend, Grok xAI, who tries hard to get it right, answered my query about Quebec's new laws coming to ban public prayer in the province.
This the Quebec government did on the slowest news day they could find, Aug. 29, 2025, the day before the nationwide Labour Day long weekend. Pretty much buried it as deep in the news cycle as it could possibly go. I bet they didn't even read the news release on CBC, English and French. The bar was open at noon on Friday. And it's an Open Bar funded by free American booze and Canadian taxpayer green slush something or other. What Am I? A reporter?
Here it is from Grok:
On August 29, 2025, Quebec’s Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge announced plans to table a bill banning prayer in public spaces, aiming to reinforce the province’s secularism policies. The move, part of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s broader push for laïcité, follows Premier François Legault’s December 2024 comments expressing discomfort with public prayers, particularly Muslim prayers during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Montreal, such as those outside the Notre-Dame Basilica. Roberge called the “proliferation of street prayer” a “serious and sensitive issue” but provided no specific details on how the ban would be enforced or which spaces and faiths would be affected.
The announcement has sparked significant controversy. Civil rights groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims, condemned it as an infringement on religious freedom and expression, arguing it disproportionately targets Muslim communities. Quebec’s Catholic bishops also raised concerns, noting potential disruptions to rituals like the Good Friday procession. Legal experts suggest the ban could rely on the notwithstanding clause to override Charter protections, as Quebec did with Bill 21, which bans religious symbols for certain public employees. An advisory committee’s recent report, which influenced the decision, recommended leaving public prayer regulation to municipalities, not a province-wide ban, highlighting a divergence from the government’s approach. Critics, including former senator André Pratte, accuse the CAQ of exploiting anti-Muslim sentiment for political gain amid declining poll numbers.[](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/public-prayer-ban-quebec-1.7619985) (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/29/quebec-public-prayer-ban) (https://globalnews.ca/news/11354604/quebec-public-prayer-ban-constitution/)
Canada's Province of Quebec is banning the practice of praying in public. Is this a surprise? Quelle surprise?
Quebec has been pushing back on 'religious' trappings related to coverings. The authorities have been taking the religious publicity seriously since incendiary riotous actions by Islamists in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec have become over threats to public safety.
People might not understand the people of Quebec have always been conservative in terms of religion, at least up to the end of the 1960s, Quebec was broadly understood to be a state as Catholic as any in the world. If there was going to be a North American Pope, he would be coming from Quebec.
Quebec ranks up there with Poland for Conservative Catholicism. They've had a few priests in the running for Pope over the years.
Poland has shown zero tolerance for Islamist actions, interventions, or idiots, breaking in seeking needless and fake asylum. And I believe it is obvious Quebec is moving swiftly to assume a position similar to Poland regarding a rise of Islam in public displays. In Canada, Quebec as a province has extended provincial authority or else a Constitutional sidestep called the Notwithstanding Clause to successfully put this no public prayer law in Quebec.
@ABDanielleSmith
