The largest school board in Montreal has lost over 100 support staff due to their refusal to remove religious symbols under Quebec's new secularism law.The Centre de services scolaire de Montréal has told Radio-Canada that staff were told if they did not comply with the new law and remove their religious symbols, they would be let go. Many decided to comply, but close to 150 did not, leading to their termination.The new law, called Bill 94, has expanded Quebec's already in-place secularism laws to include banning educational support workers, like special educators or lunchroom supervisors, from wearing religious symbols, like crucifixes and hijabs, in their workplace.Before this new change, many schools had already reported that some workers were fired, resigned, or were suspended as a result of their refusal to remove religious symbols.This comes as the Quebec government continues its crackdown on religious symbols and expression in the province, with a previous bill, Bill 9, that prevented daycare workers from wearing religious symbols and also put restrictions on praying in public.This has long been a policy of the Quebec government under the leadership of the Coalition Avenir Québec, the current ruling party in the province, which has been in power since 2018.The CAQ has made expanding secularism in Quebec one of its main priorities, with it campaigning on the platform of respecting "the principles of the secularity of the state."
