The government of Quebec announced last week that it would soon introduce legislation to ban prayers in public spaces. “The proliferation of prayers in the street is a serious and sensitive issue in Quebec,” said Jean-François Roberge, the minister responsible for secularism. The announcement comes a few weeks after a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators held a public prayer in front of Montreal’s most famous Catholic Church, the Notre-Dame Basilica in old Montreal.

This is not the first incident of the sort in the city. After a similar demonstration in the middle of a major commercial artery last winter Premier François Legault had expressed his unease: “Seeing people who pray in the streets, in public parks, is not something we want in Quebec. When we want to pray, we go to a ch

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