Civil liberties, Muslim groups ask Quebec court to suspend ban on school prayer rooms

 A civil liberties group and a Muslim advocacy organization were in Quebec Superior Court Tuesday seeking to have the province's ban on prayer rooms in public schools lifted.

Lawyers for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims told a Montreal court the ban will cause irreparable harm if it is not suspended until a court challenge can be heard on the merits of their case.

Stephen Brown, the CEO of the Muslim organization, told reporters before the hearing that since the ban was introduced in April, students have been threatened with disciplinary measures for praying at school. He said his organization has heard from a student who was mocked by a teacher for trying to find a place to pray.

"We're here today so that no child has to find a place to hide to pray at school," Brown said. "No child should have to hide who they are because they're afraid of being watched, threatened or mocked by school administrators and teachers for having done nothing more than being who they are."

When Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville barred schools from making space available to students for prayer, he said students would still be allowed to pray silently and discreetly. But Olga Redko, a lawyer for the two groups, told the court that's not an option for Muslims, whose prayers require physical action.

The case was brought on behalf of a 16-year-old Muslim student at a Montreal-area high school who had been given a place to pray during the lunch hour but lost that accommodation after the ban went into effect. The student's identity is protected by a publication ban. Sworn statements have also been entered into evidence from three other Muslim students who say they also lost the ability to pray.

Ban has 'relatively minor' effect on students, lawyer for province says

Johanna Mortreux, another lawyer for the groups, told the court the ban is violating students' freedom of religion, equality rights and their dignity. School is supposed to be like a second home for students, she told the court. Asking them to leave school to do something as fundamental to their identity as practising their religion causes significant harm, she said.

Éric Cantin, a lawyer for the provincial government, told the court that while he understands that it's easier for the students to pray at school, the restriction has a relatively minor effect on students, because they can leave the school grounds to pray.

Schools are still able to offer other reasonable accommodations to religious students, he said, including giving them time off for religious holidays.

Quebecers have supported the removal of all forms of religion from public schools since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, Cantin argued, and it's that desire for secular schools that motivated the ban.

"The public interest, therefore, is the Québécois concept of the secularization of schools," he said. "We don't want manifestations of religion in public schools."

Lucie Roy, a lawyer for the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service centre. which oversees the school the student attends, said the directive from the minister forbids schools from providing places to pray and bars students from praying in an overt way, but it does not specify what consequences students who violate the rule would face.

Roy said students won't face discipline for praying in school unless they violate other rules.

Justice Lukasz Granosik said he expects to render his decision Wednesday morning.