The ban on prayer rooms in schools was upheld by the Superior Court on Wednesday, although the judge conceded that it is a “serious” issue that will eventually have to be argued in court.
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“The request for a stay is rejected,” concluded Judge Lukasz Granosik, this Wednesday, at the Montreal courthouse.
The lawsuit was brought by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (CNMC) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CLAC), who believed that Minister Bernard Drainville’s decree violated the freedoms of Muslim students who wanted to be able to perform their prayers. at school.
A student had also filed a statement indicating that because of the government decree, he had lost the authorization to use a room in his school which served as a place of prayer.
- Listen to the interview with Laura Berger, legal counsel and spokesperson for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on Yasmine Abdelfadel’s show via QUB-radio :
No emergency
“He continued to do it in secret”, explained the judge, recalling that the school year is coming to an end, and therefore that the question of prayer rooms at school will not cause prejudice before the start of the school year in September. .
The magistrate also pointed out that the Muslim associations had been slow to challenge the decree. However, to obtain a stay, the request must be urgent. Considering the delay, the judge concluded that this criterion was not met.
“The delay was not explained [par les associations]added the magistrate.
Despite this, the judge affirmed that the question will have to be analyzed in depth, since the government decree creates a “frontal collision” between freedom of religion and the vision of secularism advocated by the Quebec government.
No hearing date has yet been set to hear the case on the merits.