(Canadian Press) Quebec’s education minister said Wednesday it will soon be forbidden to have prayer rooms in the province’s public schools.
Bernard Drainville told reporters in Quebec City he has learned of at least two Montreal-area schools that have permitted students to gather for prayer.
Drainville said he would issue the directive to all school service centres, adding that prayer rooms in schools are not compatible with Quebec’s policy of official secularism.
The minister, however, isn’t prohibiting prayer altogether, saying that students who want to pray should do so “discreetly” and “silently.”
“There are all kinds of ways to pray,” Drainville said. “I can’t ban prayer. I ban prayer in classrooms. Now, if someone wants to pray silently, that’s their basic right.”
