The age of oppression under the Catholic Church is long behind us — decades gone, and rightfully so. Yet we continue to hear this period invoked like a warning bell, a justification wielded by the CAQ government as though Quebec must forever guard against slipping back into clerical control. We are told that neutrality requires restriction, that the state must prevent religious expression in public space to preserve freedom. But what is the real-world result of such logic? It begins to look, feel, and sound like a quieter, more modern version of “speak white.”
It was right, in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, to take collective action and push back against the dominance of the Church. Our grand-parents fought for something better, and they won. Quebec became a province of critical thought, creativity, openness and cultural
diversity. Yet today, the pendulum — freed from the Church’s grasp — appears to be swinging too far in the opposite direction, past secularism and into intolerance of difference. When does protection become policing?
This week, the government once again strengthened the Secularism laws, ratifying measures that ban religious symbols, clothing and long-standing cultural practices. A newly created “religious inspector” position would even allow officials to enter home daycares to examine food, clothing and décor in search of religious traces. Instead of empowering citizens, such policies risk cultivating suspicion — neighbours watching neighbours, citizens reporting citizens, public workers assessing one another on appearance rather than merit.
For the Pontiac, the idea that taxpayer money will be spent checking whether a wooden cross hangs on a daycare wall feels like a slap. We are facing a health-care crisis. The Outaouais is losing doctors, nurses, oncologists, surgeons, anaesthesiologists, physiologists — not religious neutrality. Who, exactly, is served by this?
The disconnect from Jean-François Roberge’s Secular Society team increasingly resembles the very religious strong-arming of the 1930s they claim to oppose: enforcing conformity, upholding majority comfort, consolidating power for those already holding it. Neutrality cannot be achieved through suppression.
Roberge says the goal is to protect the meek. But real protection lifts people up — it doesn’t make them smaller. Quebec must raise a generation capable of respecting one another in every shape, colour and belief. The key to building strong health care, strong education, strong public service is simple: hire the best people. Civil society should value integrity, compassion, skill — not whether a person wears a kippah, a kilt, a cross or a kimono. We should be teaching children to celebrate these differences, not fear them. Otherwise, we risk drifting toward a different kind of KKK.