Quebec City, Canada, Sep 15, 2013 / 15:04 pm
A government announcement of a Charter of Quebec Values defining the Canadian province as a secular state presents a grave concern for religious liberty, a religious freedom scholar says.
"The situation in Quebec in Canada is now very worrying," said Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, in a Sept. 12 interview with CNA.
"It's a very dangerous, radical kind of secularization which is seeking to drive religion anywhere outside of the public square."
The proposed charter is a new declaration of the province's ideology, and would also change parts of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedom. Together, the two documents would affirm "the state's independence from religions," said Bernard Drainville, the Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions and Active Citizenship, which will oversee the proposed policies.