Nationalistic secularism and the critique of Canadian multiculturalism in Quebec

Abstract

This chapter presents how a nationalist conception of secularism, based on a critique of Canadian multiculturalism, is gaining currency in public discourses in Quebec with regard to regulating religious diversity. While retracing the political and legal steps between the debate on the reasonable accommodations (2006) in Quebec and the recent Bill 21 (2019), David Koussens underlines the emergence of several types of nationalistic secularism. This phenomenon ultimately promotes the interests of the majority's religion while trying to mask or make invisible the minorities' religious practices. The situation in Quebec can be perceived as a trend in other liberal democracies since the 2000s, in which Islam becomes a threat to the idea of citizenship and the possibility of belonging to a majoritarian national state.