“No place” of a public school should be used for praying, ordered Wednesday evening the Minister of Education of Quebec, Bernard Drainville. A directive to this effect had been adopted a little earlier by the Council of Ministers.
“In order to preserve the secular nature of public schools, I am therefore issuing today a directive concerning religious practices in our schools, our vocational training centers and our public adult education centers. Schools are places of learning and not places of worship,” confirmed Mr. Drainville in a press release issued at the end of the day.
The directive from the Minister of Education, who had already made his intentions known two weeks ago, leaves no room for interpretation: school service centers must henceforth ensure “that no place is used, in fact and in appearance, for the purposes of religious practices such as manifest prayers or other similar practices”.
At the beginning of April, when Ramadan was in full swing, Cogeco Nouvelles reported that two Laval high schools had authorized the temporary opening of a “resourcing” room to allow students to pray. The directors of the establishments had then argued that some young people prayed in several places in the school, often inappropriate.
“According to the principle of freedom of conscience, a pupil has the right to be protected from any direct or indirect pressure aimed at exposing him or influencing him so that he conforms to a religious practice”, notes Minister Drainville’s directive, which also recalls that a representative of the State “cannot, in the exercise of his functions, favor one or more religions, for example by supervising or otherwise endorsing the organization of religious practices” .
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