Quebec Bans Public Prayer, Ignores Its Own Colonial History
Mainstream media reports, like the Guardian's, detail Quebec's Bill 9, outlawing public prayer and face coverings, sparking understandable fears it targets Muslims. The irony, though, is thicker than a Montreal winter: a province whose very identity is steeped in Catholic colonial history and, let's not forget, the forceful imposition of French culture and language, suddenly discovers the pressing
need for 'secularism' when non-Christian faiths become visible. This isn't about separation of church and state; it's about separation of *their* church from *your* state. Quebec, a society historically built on religious institutions and symbols – crosses on mountains, church steeples dominating every town – now finds public prayer so threatening it requires fines of C$1,125. One might wonder why
expressions of Indigenous spirituality, or the historical Catholic omnipresence, never triggered such alarm. Is it 'secularism' when you only notice other people's prayers? Or is it simply a rebranding of xenophobia with a French accent?