It’s the most wonderful time of the year – but not, sadly, in Quebec. Or at least that’s what the provincial government would have us believe.

As the region’s secularism minister Jean-François Roberge explained: ‘We can wish someone merry Christmas. We can sing Christmas songs. This is nothing but tradition. But we shouldn’t make any references to the birth of baby Jesus… When we wish someone merry Christmas, we can think of Santa Claus and his elves, but nothing Catholic.’

Generously, Christmas parties are permitted in schools and daycares as long as ‘there is no attempt to transmit religious values’

Roberge was describing the workings of Bill 9, an attempt to expand the region’s secularism laws. The proposed legislation will ban public prayer, force religious private schools to secularise or be defunded, ban chapels and prayer rooms in publicly funded educational institutions, limit religious (including Halal and Kosher) menus in publicly funded institutions and extend Legault’s 2019 ban on religious symbols for civil servants in a position of authority, to private school teachers.

Montrealers will have to watch their thoughts as they head down Boulevard Saint-Laurent, make a left on Rue Notre-Dame, and take Rue Saint-Vincent and Rue Saint-Paul on their way to the Marché Bonsecours (so called for its proximity to the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, which dates to 1655). Remember, this Christmas, it’s okay to think publicly about Santa Claus and his elves, but not about anything Catholic.

Generously, Christmas parties are permitted in schools and daycares as long as ‘there is no attempt to transmit religious values.’ The secularism minister says he is relying on people’s common sense – presumably to keep them from accidentally mentioning stables, shepherds, unusual stars, and the holy Child in the manger. It’s good to know the government trusts people to obey, even if it doesn’t trust them to think the right thing when saying ‘Merry Christmas’.

This Bill is about, supposedly, state neutrality towards religion. But is it really? Is telling people that Santa and his elves are acceptable in public, but not Jesus Christ, neutral? Is it neutral to insist that Catholicism – which literally built Quebec stone by stone, and named every other street after a saint to prove it – has nothing to do with Quebec’s identity?

Bill 9 was advanced on pretext of solving a real problem. Over the past year, Islamic groups have made a regular practice of occupying the square in front of Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal for Muslim prayers (without a permit). Tensions, unsurprisingly, have surged between them and the many who feel this action in this particular location is provocative, contrary to Quebec’s identity and anti-Catholic. The city has the legal means to prevent this, as permits are already required for this type of event, but has let it continue for months, despite public discomfort and counter-protests.

Now François Legault’s government, in power since 2018, is taking the opportunity to legislate against all public prayer, as if pilgrims praying en route to St Joseph’s Oratory on Mount Royal, the hill from which Montreal gets its name, were as culturally alien to Quebec as the muezzin. Or as if the historic Corpus Christi processions, captured by celebrated Quebec artist Jean-Paul Lemieux in his 1944 painting ‘La Fête-Dieu à Québec’ never existed and need to be erased.

It’s hard to shake the feeling that Legault is simply using the Muslim prayers as an excuse to transform Quebec society. This October, Legault dropped a surprise constitution on the province – a constitution that nobody asked for, and which was devised without public consultation. According to its many critics, it is little more than a power grab. Legault says it will protect (read: impose) the supposedly common values of Quebec, which his government, as it has a majority, apparently gets to define.

But let’s be honest – this secularist ideal is not a ‘Quebec value’. It is a Legault value, and if he thinks the people of Quebec should abide by it, he should admit honestly that it is a new proposition, not pretend it is something that Quebecers have always wanted. What most Quebecers actually want is to have their basilica and their heritage treated with respect.

Quebec has always been strongly defined by its French language, its geography and its unique history and culture. Catholicism is an essential part of that, even if many Quebecers stopped practising during the Quiet Revolution. To say Catholicism should not enjoy a favoured place in Quebec culture is like saying the French language should not enjoy a favoured place. The imposition of a top-down secularist ideology, claiming to protect Quebec identity but disregarding these realities, is nothing but a betrayal.

It is also pure arrogance. The Quebec government versus the Incarnation: who do you think will win? Legault – who is ending 2025 as the most unpopular premier in Canada – ought perhaps to dip into the history books over the holidays to learn what happens to governments who attempt to remove the baby Jesus from the picture. They come and they go; the Christ Child remains.