CLF/acd TO INTERVENE IN SUPPORT OF STUDENTS’ RIGHT TO PRAY at school
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
27 July 2023
Montréal, QC – The Quebec Superior Court has granted Christian Legal Fellowship / Alliance des chrétiens en droit leave to intervene in litigation challenging the province’s “prayer ban” directive. That directive, issued by the Quebec Minister of Education, prohibits the use of any space in public schools for religious practices, including “overt prayers”.
Quebec lawyer and former CLF/ACD President, Robert Reynolds, who is representing CLF/ACD in the litigation, comments:
“All students have the fundamental right to pray, alone or with others. This right is protected by the Quebec and Canadian Charters, as well as international human rights instruments. The government has no more legitimacy to forbid student prayer than it does to compel it. We are grateful for the opportunity to stand with all students in Quebec who express their faith through prayer. ”
In conjunction with the directive’s release, Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville stated that its purpose was “to preserve the secular nature of public schools” and was enacted in response to reports of “various prayer practices that take place in certain public schools in Quebec.” He emphasized that students who want to pray should do so “discreetly” and “silently”.
In a recent op-ed for The Globe and Mail, CLF/ACD Executive Director & General Counsel Derek Ross commented on the unconstitutionality of such a directive in school spaces:
A policy prohibiting students from praying in school spaces (other than “silently”) does not meet [the Constitution’s] standard. Nor does it advance religious neutrality. True neutrality is achieved not by silencing prayer, but by accommodating students of all faiths, and none, to participate fully and equally in our public education system … if students’ prayers offend the state’s vision of secularism, which of their expressions of faith might be restricted next?
The constitutional litigation has been commenced by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims. As an intervener, CLF/ACD now joins the proceedings as a friend of the court to present legal arguments on the constitutional principle of state neutrality and the fundamental freedoms and equality rights of openly religious students. Executive Director Derek Ross comments:
““Students are not required to be religiously neutral - the government is. The government’s directive inverts this duty by forcing students to hide a fundamental aspect of their religious identity while at school, contrary to the principles of the Quebec and Canadian Charters. We are grateful for the opportunity to present these arguments to the court.””
CLF/ACD is Canada’s national association of over 700 Christian lawyers, law professors, jurists, and law students. CLF/ACD has intervened in numerous court proceedings to uphold freedom of religion and the right to equal treatment without religious discrimination, including the challenge to Quebec’s Bill 21 currently before the Quebec Court of Appeal.
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For additional information, please contact:
Annamarie Carruthers
office@christianlegalfellowship.org
Learn more:
Read CLF/ACD’s application for leave to intervene below (original in French, unofficial translation in English)
Read more about the “prayer ban” directive
Watch an episode of Canadian Justice on this issue with CLF/ACD and CCLA lawyers
Read “Banning student-initiated prayer in school spaces is unconstitutional, and unjust” (The Globe and Mail)
Read about CLF/ACD’s intervention in the Bill 21 litigation (FR) (EN)
Read CLF/ACD's application to intervene:
Official version:
Unofficial English translation:
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