Montreal university students decry Quebec government’s plan to ban prayer rooms

MONTREAL – Muslim students at a Montreal university say they’re deeply troubled by the Quebec government’s plan to ban prayer rooms in post-secondary schools.

They say the prayer room at Concordia University is an important gathering place for the Muslim community, visited by at least 500 students a day. Some students say they chose to attend Concordia because it has had an established prayer room for many years.

“The Quebec that I know is a Quebec that is inclusive for everyone, where everyone feels comfortable, everyone has freedoms,” said Maryam Laoufi, an adviser at the Muslim Student Association at Concordia University. “So I think that it’s very alarming to find ourselves in this situation.”

On Thursday, the Quebec government tabled new legislation that would ban prayer and other religious practices in public institutions, most notably colleges and universities. 

The new bill would also prohibit communal prayer on public roads and in parks unless it’s authorized by the municipality. People who defy the ban could face fines of up to $375, while groups could face fines of up to $1,125. 

It would also ban full face coverings, such as the niqab, for post-secondary students, and extend Quebec’s religious symbols ban to people working throughout the education system, from daycares to colleges and universities, as well as to private schools.

The legislation would also place some restrictions on government funding of subsidized private religious schools in the province. It says schools cannot be granted accreditation if they teach religion during school hours or if they select students or personnel based on religious criteria. 

The bill invokes the notwithstanding clause of the Charter to shield the legislation from some constitutional challenges. 

Students at Concordia say the measures unfairly target the Muslim community and would force them to go elsewhere to pray multiple times a day. 

Ines Rarrbo, a first-year mechanical engineering student at Concordia, said she’s been using the prayer room every day since the beginning of the semester. “I feel like it’s a sense of community,” she said. “Every time I go in, there’s always people around.”

Samy Khelifi, the president of the Muslim Student Association, said the group numbers more than 5,000 students. “What happens to those 5,000 people if they all go pray out on random corners?” he said. “Muslims are being targeted and stigmatized for everything they do nowadays.”

Khelifi said the prayer room at Concordia is also used by students of other faiths, including Christian and Jewish students. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2025.