Prayer rooms in colleges, universities, and some workplaces will be closed starting Tuesday. Provisions of Quebec’s Act to strengthen secularism now require them to remove the religious materials they made available to users.
Ezekiel Montoya Desjardins, vice-president of external affairs for the Dawson Student Association, was sitting near the carpets that once adorned his college’s prayer room when Le Devoir called him. The student association at this English-language CEGEP in Montreal had managed the room before being forced to close it off.
“The law will always be stronger than us,” the young man says, defeated. He and his colleagues recently took it upon themselves to announce to the college’s religious student groups that the hall was closing due to Quebec’s Act to Strengthen Secularism. “We could see on their faces that they were looking at us, hoping we would find a solution,” he recounts. “But, honestly, the only solution we have right now is to make sure the government understands the consequences this has for the students.”
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