Quebec Premier François Legault says he wants to ban public prayer in province

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), announced it had sent a “demand letter” to Legault regarding his plan to ban public prayer. “Such a ban is a totalitarian suppression of the freedoms of expression and of conscience and religion”

Quebec Premier François Legault has tasked his top cabinet officials with putting in place a law that would ban all praying in public in Canada’s only historically and culturally Catholic province.

“Seeing people praying in the streets, in public parks, is not something we want in Quebec,” Legault said last week on Friday afternoon.

While Legault directed the ban at “teachers implementing Islamist religious concepts in schools,” the reality is the ban would apply to all faiths, including Catholicism, which is the founding faith of the province.

He was quoted by La Presse recently as saying “We have seen teachers implementing Islamist religious concepts in schools.”

“When we want to pray, we go to a church, we go to a mosque, but not in public places. And, yes, we will look at the means where we can act legally or otherwise,” he said.

Legault said it he has asked members of his cabinet to produce a plan to put the ban in place during the new year and says if he gets pushback he will use the province’s notwithstanding clause to do so.

Canada’s notwithstanding clause, which is in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allows provinces to temporarily override sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect new laws from being scrapped by the courts.

In 2019, Quebec passed its so-called secularism law, or Bill 21, that bans all public servants, public school teachers, police officers, government lawyers, and wildlife officials from wearing any religious symbols while at work, including crosses or crucifixes.

Legault, speaking about his proposal to ban public prayer, said he wanted to send a “very clear message to the Islamists.”

“We will fight, and we will never, never accept that people try to not respect the values that are fundamental to Quebec,” he said.

Banning public prayer is a ‘totalitarian suppression’ of free speech, says legal group

While the Canadian Muslim Forum noted that Legault’s words were “deeply troubling,” Canada’s leading constitutional freedom group, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), announced it had sent a “demand letter” to Legault regarding his plan to ban public prayer.

“Such a ban is a totalitarian suppression of the freedoms of expression and of conscience and religion,” the JCCF said Tuesday regarding its notice of sending the demand letter.

The JCCF wrote in the demand letter that far from reinforcing secularism, the ban on praying in public places would “contradict the principles on which the secularism law is based: “(1) the religious neutrality of the State, (2) the equality of all citizens, and (3) freedom of religion.”

In the demand letter, lawyer Olivier Séguin wrote that Legault’s “approach to the situation” suggests a “militant, anti-religious and dogmatic conception of one of the healthiest and oldest practices that human beings have maintained in their relationships with their fellow human beings and with a higher power.”

“The ban on prayer announced by the Premier borrows from the intolerant overtones of a state atheism that flourished east of the Iron Curtain during the 20th century, and of which history has retained only sad memories. In so doing, our government would be violating the principles of religious neutrality, equality and freedom of religion on which the secular state is supposed to be based,” he added.

When it comes to the historical fact of Quebec’s Catholic heritage and past, Quebec Life Coalition President Georges Buscemi earlier this year observed to LifeSiteNews that laws such as the secularism one in reality reflect the rejection of faith by today’s Quebecers.

“This decision is completely consistent with the recent historical trend in Quebec, which is one of rejecting its Catholic heritage in favor of a liberal ‘enlightened’ worldview, which considers religion to be a purely private matter,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Related Topics:#AnthonyMurdoch #JusticeCentreForConstitutionalFreedoms #LifeSiteNews FrancoisLegault QuebecPublicPrayerBan

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Liberals to increase CBC funding to nearly $2 billion per year

Published on January 20, 2025

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

The Department of Canadian Heritage promised funding to offset the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s nearly 10 percent drop in ad revenue last year despite an audience share of 1.7 percent, meaning over 98 percent of the country is not watching the network.

The Liberal government has promised to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to compensate CBC-TV for ads that the network cannot sell.

According to information released January 20 by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Liberal-run Department of Canadian Heritage will give CBC millions more, bringing the network’s total parliamentary grant near $2 billion a year.

“The CBC has been grappling with a range of financial pressures that are challenging its ability to maintain programming and service levels,” Liberals argued, adding that their department will be “providing additional funding to make it less reliant on private advertising with a goal of eliminating advertising during news and other public affairs shows.”

“The CBC is a pillar of Canada’s creative economy, a key provider of programming made by and for Canadians and a significant source of trusted news and information,” Liberals claimed.

“This government is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the CBC so that it can continue to create public value and adapt to the needs and expectations of Canadians,” the department continued.

The increased government subsidies come after an October report found that CBC’s advertising revenue dropped nearly 10 percent last year.

Furthermore, CBC’s own quarterly report found that its network audience share is only 1.7%, meaning more than 98% of Canadians are not watching CBC.

However, Liberals have chosen to ignore the fact that Canadians are not watching CBC, instead spending millions of dollars to prop up the failing outlet.

Beginning in 2019, Parliament changed the Income Tax Act to give yearly rebates of 25 percent for each news employee in cabinet-approved media outlets earning up to $55,000 a year to a maximum of $13,750.

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Freeland and Carney owe Canadians clear answer on carbon taxes

Published on January 20, 2025

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Liberal leadership front-runners Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney to clearly state whether they will scrap the carbon tax.

“Taxpayers have one simple question for anyone who wants to be prime minister: Will you scrap the carbon tax?” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Freeland is running on her experience as finance minister, but she gave a rambling response about listening to Canadians instead of giving a clear and credible answer. Carney is running on his economic expertise as a central banker, but his response didn’t provide any clarity beyond a vague suggestion that he’s working on a replacement scheme.

“How can Freeland or Carney hope to have a shred of credibility if they don’t have a clear answer to the question: Will you scrap the carbon tax?”

Freeland was asked about the carbon tax during her leadership campaign launch in Toronto on Sunday.

“We have heard very clearly from Canadians in provinces where there is a consumer-facing price on carbon that they don’t like it,” Freeland said. “That’s something that we have to listen to. Democracy means when people tell you something you have to listen. I will say our party hasn’t been good enough at that. That has to change, and I am going to change that.”

Carney was equally unclear on the carbon tax at his campaign launch in Edmonton on Thursday.

“If you are going to take out the carbon tax, we should replace it with something that is at least, if not more, effective,” Carney said. “Perception may be that it takes out more than the rebate provides but reality is different, and Canadians will miss that money, so you need a comprehensive approach.”

Liberal Government House Leader Karina Gould also announced her leadership campaign on Sunday. Gould said she would keep the carbon tax but would “immediately cancel the increase to the price on pollution ahead of April 1.”

The federal carbon tax is set to increase on April 1 to 21 cents per litre of gasoline, 25 cents per litre of diesel and 18 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.

Prior to the carbon tax hike last year, a Leger poll commissioned by the CTF showed 69 per cent of Canadians opposed the carbon tax increase.

“Gould figured out it would be bad if the carbon tax goes up right at the start of an election campaign,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “But Canadian’s don’t want half-measures as proven by the backlash against the temporary carbon-tax exemption for home heating oil.

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been clear from the start he would keep the carbon tax and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been clear he would axe the tax. Anyone who wants to be a credible candidate for prime minister needs a crystal-clear answer for this question: Will you scrap the carbon tax?”