this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
126 points (98.5% liked)
Canada
10705 readers
440 users here now
What's going on Canada?
Related Communities
🍁 Meta
🗺️ Provinces / Territories
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon
🏙️ Cities / Local Communities
- Anmore (BC)
- Burnaby (BC)
- Calgary (AB)
- Comox Valley (BC)
- Edmonton (AB)
- East Gwillimbury (ON)
- Greater Sudbury (ON)
- Guelph (ON)
- Halifax (NS)
- Hamilton (ON)
- Kingston (ON)
- Kootenays (BC)
- London (ON)
- Mississauga (ON)
- Montreal (QC)
- Nanaimo (BC)
- Niagara Falls (ON)
- Niagara-on-the-Lake (ON)
- Oceanside (BC)
- Ottawa (ON)
- Port Alberni (BC)
- Regina (SK)
- Saskatoon (SK)
- Squamish (BC)
- Thunder Bay (ON)
- Toronto (ON)
- Vancouver (BC)
- Vancouver Island (BC)
- Victoria (BC)
- Waterloo (ON)
- Whistler (BC)
- Windsor (ON)
- Winnipeg (MB)
Sorted alphabetically by city name.
🏒 Sports
Hockey
- Main: c/Hockey
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Montréal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Vancouver Canucks
- Winnipeg Jets
Football (NFL): incomplete
Football (CFL): incomplete
Baseball
Basketball
Soccer
- Main: /c/CanadaSoccer
- Toronto FC
💻 Schools / Universities
- BC | UBC (U of British Columbia)
- BC | SFU (Simon Fraser U)
- BC | VIU (Vancouver Island U)
- BC | TWU (Trinity Western U)
- ON | UofT (U of Toronto)
- ON | UWO (U of Western Ontario)
- ON | UWaterloo (U of Waterloo)
- ON | UofG (U of Guelph)
- ON | OTU (Ontario Tech U)
- QC | McGill (McGill U)
Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.
💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales
- Personal Finance Canada
- Buy Canadian
- BAPCSalesCanada
- Canadian Investor
- Canadian Skincare
- Churning Canada
- Quebec Finance
🗣️ Politics
- General:
- Federal Parties (alphabetical):
- By Province (alphabetical):
🍁 Social / Culture
- Ask a Canadian
- Bières Québec
- Canada Francais
- Canadian Gaming
- EhVideos (Canadian video media)
- First Nations
- First Nations Languages
- Indigenous
- Inuit
- Logiciels libres au Québec
- Maple Music (music)
Rules
- Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.
Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I love it. Public prayer shouldn’t happen at all.
The problem is not if it should or shouldn’t happen
The problem is that it will not be enforced equally between religious communities and Christian poser asshole
It’s racism with more steps
What bothers me about this perspective is the implicit assumption that everyone who thinks that public displays of religion should be banned is actually motivated by racism, rather than recognising that somebody can be against this for non-racist reasons.
That is not push on a non-racism way in Quebec. Like I said they don’t want to use the law equally, they want to use it specifically against Muslim.
And so far, from my perspective (that is a confirmation biais), no one debate the idea without a racist undertone
That's my issue as well with the bill. Just look at the crucifix at the Assembly. They didn't remove it, they just moved it outside the room. If the intent of the law was really to remove religion from the public space, it wouldn't have been a debate about keeping the crucifix in the Assembly.
It just so happens that it always boils down to policing what Muslims do. Just one big coincidence.
That's very fair yes. But how can you tell those who are anti-religion for racist reasons from those who are for not?
There are two hazards in our discussion:
I prioritize hazard 1 as having a lower consequence than hazard 2.
In other words, I care much more about eradicating systemic racism than the hurt feelings of someone whose motives are misunderstood.
OK that's a good argument. It's perhaps a flaw of the word "racist" that it can include systemic racism, when it connotes individual racism.
Sure, you can be against it for authoritarian reasons as well. Disturbing.
I don't really see how that's related. Even if it were motivated by racism, that'd be equally authoritarian to any other motive, since authoritarianism is about ceding rights from individuals to the government and it doesn't matter what the motivation for that is.
Fair enough: regardless of whether racism is involved or not, there is an authoritarian bent to this law. In my opinion.
Religion has been used time and time again to justify committing atrocities and still used as such today.
There is a legitimate debate to be had about the religion's place in a society.
The context made it so that people conflates the two.
Medias and public debates pretty much always framed the issue of religion in public as a racist thing (in order to get more views) instead of only talking how the CAQ government targetted non-christian religions with their bill.
It’s not racism with more steps. You don’t even know it has not been enforced improperly. It’s a lot easier to enforce enforcement than it is to stop people ruining the world
Praying doesn't ruin the world. Just like having a party, or a poetry slam, or Shakespeare in the park.
It's behaviors that cause health or safety issues that are the problem.
Praying in PUBLIC is like having sex in public. Don’t.
So someone praying before a meal is an equivalent obscenity?
So, you and I both know that public praying isn’t just people being in public standing around praying without anyone knowing they’re praying.
If a person went to a restaurant and started vocally praising Satan for this meal for an hour prior to eating it… yeah I bet they would make a lot of people uncomfortable. Not to mention the restaurant would refuse them service.
What you want to do is justify bothering people in public spaces with your beliefs. If you can stand around in public thinking about your god without letting anyone else know you’re doing it, then no one would be uncomfortable.
Then that's not prayer, it's being a public nuisance, a disturber of the peace. That's a different crime / tort that I'm sure is already on the books.
The prayer part is irrelevant.
There's a precedent like this in the US: enhancement laws
They ruin lives, and don't stop crime.
So what is an example of something you think this topic is referring to? It’s not referring to a family doing a quick prayer before a public meal.
It sounds like a bunch of flimsy bullshit in order to legally oppress practicing religious freedoms.
You should always question why law enforcement gets extra work.
So, you’re not able to answer my question or you’re refusing to?
I don’t disagree that giving law enforcement more work should be questioned, but… religious people are the cause of… most of the world’s problems. So I don’t have a ton of empathy. Keep it in your church.
Why should I have to answer your question? What makes you so special that I'm required to do indulge in your navel gazing?
Making the practice of prayer illegal in any form is asinine and an overstepping of personal freedoms.
If you can't understand that, start looking at every fascist entity of the past, and realize you're on the wrong side.
I disagree. Sorry. Religious people are just… the cause of most problems in the world.
It sounds like your idea of “fascism” is Socialism without Religion… sign me up.
People using religion to oppress and usurp others, yes.
People just having a personal relationship with whatever they believe in? No.
Often, what one would see as a crime or nuisance while observing "religious practices" is simply another already codified behavior. Also, meditation could be constructed as prayer under the vagueness of these kinds of laws.
No one is saying that a person cannot be religious. They are saying that they cannot pray on the side of the street. It’s cold on the side of the street, you have a dedicated place for this. I imagine that it has comfortable seats, made of solid gold, and people that you know. Go there, get the fuck out of my face with your fucking bigotry and hate.
Religion had its time, and it failed. Get back in the fucking closet.
Sorry, can you expand on the ways prayer is like sex? Are people praying with their dicks out in your vicinity?
It's personal and private and children shouldn't be exposed to it. It's not wrong, and you can do it, but keep it away from me and mine.
Have you considered being less nosy? Minding your business?
I'm no lover of religion but I love this culture policing even less.
If you aren’t able to see how a comparison between two things does not create a combination of those two things, then you aren’t intelligent enough to converse in a polite manor. I’ve provided more details in my other comments, you can read those without interacting with me.
*manner
STT
What a weirdo comparison to make.
Only we do know exactly the results of the CAQ's "laïcité" laws:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-21-impact-religious-minorities-survey-1.6541241
Bury your head in the sand all you like but the systemic racism that is embedded in the social outcomes of these laws is undeniable and palpable.
Why...? This isn't much better than, say, Iran's morality police.
Religion is like sex. You can do it in your home and maybe even designated enclosed places in groups, but you should never do it out in public—and under no circumstances should you ever involve children.
Ah, yes, [thing] is like [completely different thing]. You can believe that as much as you want, but you haven't explained why your beliefs should be enforced on others via state violence.
Do you believe that people should be able to have sex out in public for everyone to see? And, why Do you feel the way you do?
No, because it's people are almost universally made uncomfortable by it. It's not like there's a segment of society whose values and beliefs entail having sex in public. That still doesn't support your point. I could make the exact same argument for Iranian hijab laws.
I would say about the same number of people are offended by profanity in public as they are religious acts in public. Moreover, I would estimate the number who are offended by sex acts in public is much higher than either of these. So, for the sake of other people's sensibilities, shall we ban public profanity?
People are uncomfortable with it explicitly because religion made it so.
Monkeys will fuck right in front of us and not give a shit.
I believe that public display of religion makes enough people feel uncomfortable that it was banned in Quebec.
Let me ask you this, why do you feel that you should be able to practice your religion in plain view of everyone else when you make them uncomfortable? And a follow up question, don’t you think that you should be going to the designated spot for this?
I certainly don’t think we should ban religion in general. That’s crazy talk. I just don’t think we should be forcing things onto other people. Do you?
Do you feel that you should be able to hold hands with a same sex partner in plain view of everyone else when you make them uncomfortable?
Do you feel that you should be able to be trans in plain view of everyone else when you make them uncomfortable?
Maybe people being uncomfortable is not a good yardstick for determining what people can do in public.
Yes, you can hold hands and you can hold your bible. You can also be a believer in god while also walking in public. You can even wear a rainbow or a crucifix to identify your own kind. But, keep your void damned pants on and don’t scream out praising your god.
Yes trans is a person being who they are. Religion is a choice.
I don’t disagree that “uncomfortable” is a slippery slope word. And while I completely agree with banning prayer in public—I probably wouldn’t vote for it. Unlike religious people, I dislike forcing my views on people, even if their entire existence is doing that.
Your opinion makes me uncomfortable and I think we should ban expressing things like this in public :(
/end sarcasm
Good thing this isn’t public.
You have fundamentally misunderstood the internet if you do not think this is public.
Porn is on the internet, does that mean people should start fucking in public?
There’s a real difference between doing something on an open internet forum and doing it out in public, physically. Online, people have to choose to click on something, follow a link, or open a post. If they don’t want to see it, they can just scroll past or block it. In the real world, you can’t avoid someone the same way—you can’t block a person walking toward you on the sidewalk, and you can’t just scroll away from something happening right in front of you.
Plus, online spaces usually come with filters, warnings, and moderation tools that don’t exist in physical public spaces. Everything online is also separated by screens and distance, so the impact isn’t the same as doing something right in front of people who have no way to opt out.