Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett: Quebec’s Totalitarian Moment and Loss of Catholic Culture

By Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, The Catholic Thing,  August 3, 2019

In 1981, while ushering in Canada’s new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau remarked that “The Golden Thread of Faith is woven throughout the history of Canada from its earliest beginnings up to the present time.” Now, in Trudeau’s home province of Quebec, we are witnessing the unraveling of that thread and the prospect of its complete sundering.

On June 16, 2019, the Quebec National Assembly passed the Coalition pour l’Avenir du Québec government’s Bill 21: An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State. At ten pages, the law is brief in length, but broad and troubling in scope. It affirms that Quebec is a “lay state,” characterized by the “separation of State and religions . . . the religious neutrality of the state . . . the equality of all citizens . . . and freedom of conscience and religion.”

Based on these mutually contradictory premises, the law prohibits the wearing of religious symbols by public servants when they are exercising their functions. ….

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