Overview

• Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said he will introduce legislation this fall to prohibit street and other public prayers, citing a proliferation of such gatherings in Montreal.
• An advisory committee’s nearly 300-page review urged municipal regulation of collective prayers rather than a provincewide prohibition.
• The government has not released the bill’s text or said if it will rely on the notwithstanding clause, an option Premier François Legault previously raised.
• The proposal follows viral images of mass outdoor Muslim prayers in Montreal that intensified the debate over public space and religious expression.
• Civil-liberties groups and Muslim organizations denounced a blanket ban, while the Parti Québécois plans a member consultative referendum on its stance and Catholic bishops warn of impacts on processions such as the Way of the Cross.