QUEBEC — The Coalition Avenir Québec government has presented new legislation expanding and reinforcing the rules of secularism in Quebec.

Six years after adopting Bill 21 barring people in position of authority from wearing religious symbols , the minister responsible for laicity, Jean-François Roberge, presented Bill 9 in the National Assembly Thursday.

Among other things, the bill, which will be subject to public hearings, will move Quebec’s secularism law up another notch, banning public prayer in streets and parks for the first time in history. There will be some exceptions.

The bill “prohibits the use of public roads and public parks for the purposes of collective religious practices without the authorization of the municipality.”

Quebec is not proposing to bar people from coveri

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