#Quebecer

[lapsed-lys]

April 3rd 2024

Entry #022

Laicity Law

Being Gen Z and religious in Québec (Canada) is a really strange experience.

(Incoming VERY long ramble about the experience of being Catholic under the Laicity Law.)

In 2019, Québec installed the Laicity Law ("Loi de la laïcitié de l'État"), which stipulates that any authority working for the State cannot show publicly any signs of their religious beliefs. For example, teachers (even private schools), State bankers, State attorneys, etc. can't wear any religious clothing or jewelry. If I were to be working in a museum, I'd have to hide my Rosary necklace under my shirts. It doesn't apply to students or the general public.

Being Gen Z and growing up with the mindset of loving everyone for who they are made me very reticent to the law in 2019, especially as I saw my Muslim friends being stressed out over this. Just this February, a group of people contested the law in court (which was denied). My feelings to that law changed a bit over time, though, especially with that mental exercise:

If I imagine any non-Catholic teacher coming up to school with religious clothing, I'd be okay.

If I imagine a Catholic nun teaching me with their full habit, I'd feel weird.

And it's a common observation amongst the younger Québécois (anecdotal, not proven).

The thing is, that law was made specifically due to the national trauma that we suffered under Catholicism. My parents grew up raised by nuns who would slap their wrists with a ruler, especially my mother as she is left-handed. My grand-parents are from the orphanage generation, the Duplessis Orphans, in which the Cardinal on Montréal signed a treaty with the president to intern all orphans into psychiatric institutions where they were basically enslaved and sexually abused continuously.

And so, of course I feel weird about being taught by an openly presenting Catholic, it's generational trauma! But it wouldn't be fair to just ban Catholics, and we don't want all that trauma to ever happen again... so the Laicity Law applies to every religion.

It's a bummer of a law, though I feel very sympathetic as to why it was put in place.

[thunderstruck9]

John Little (Canadian, 1928-2024), Rue O'Connell Angle St-Simon, in Disappearing Quebec, 1968. Oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) is permanently ceasing operations, Concordia University confirmed last Friday. In a notice published on its website, the university blamed “budgetary constraints” for the decision. “We extend our sincere gratitude to all faculty, staff, students and partners who dedicated themselves to advancing MIGS’ mission over the years,” the university wrote. The institute was long considered one of Canada’s leading think tanks, working to develop better policies to protect human rights.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[canadachronicles]

I believe Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive is a perfectly good tune to begin the year (or the weekend) with optimism, don't you think? Especially when Oscar Peterson plays it!

[caniscryptid]

Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk) protestors face off with the Canadian military during the Oka Crisis, which began over expansion of a golf course into Mohawk territory.

Kahnawake Reserve, Quebec, 1990

[maureen2musings]

Fall morning in Jacques-Cartier National Park

herry.with.an.e

[huariqueje]

View of Petit Champlain from the Casse Cou Stairs  -  Richard  Savoie

Canadian, b.1959 -  

Oil on canvas

[iko66]

Quartier Petit Champlain, Quebec City, Canada

[without-ado]

Total Solar Eclipse & Venus l Alan Dyer

l Lac Brome in Quebec, Canada on April 8, 2024

[crazygnomenclature]

"Aw, my muffin."

Webtoon | Insta | Bluesky

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[catfindr]

[sapgoon]

miku sen va s'péter la face au rockfest

[fannyrosie]

Fanny à Québec

Outfit rundown Dress: vintage Ingeborg (Pink House) Hat, gloves, brooches and belt: vintage Bag: second-hand Métamorphose temps de fille Shoes: old Cobb Hill Socks: Alice and the Pirates

[allthecanadianpolitics]

For the first time since 1877, Montrealers without housing may soon be unable to get a hot meal at an Old Montreal soup kitchen. Fiona Crossling, the general director of Accueil Bonneau, said her organization can no longer afford to serve people on weekends, and she warns that if it can't secure stable provincial government funding, it will have to stop providing meals altogether next month. "We're operating at a deficit and we just don't have the funds," she said in an interview Tuesday. "We've announced that we will close weekends as of this coming weekend, but we're doing everything we can to negotiate with the government to ensure that it doesn't go any further." Crossling said her organization, which gives hot meals to around 400 people every morning, has done everything it can to avoid closing its food program. The province gave Accueil Bonneau emergency funding to keep it running through January, but Crossling says her organization has run a deficit for the past three years and can't continue offering food without more help.

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Tagging @politicsofcanada

[wanderlustfuldays]

Montreal Canada

[suburbanscrimshaw]