City hall to remove crucifix
Legault reverses course and says National Assembly might follow suit
On the same day the city of Montreal announced it will remove the crucifix that hangs in the council chamber at city hall, Quebec Premier François Legault for the first time said the provincial government might remove the crucifix from the National Assembly in Quebec City.
It is a reversal of a position the government has held for months. Legault repeatedly maintained that the crucifix, which has been affixed above the Speaker’s chair in the National Assembly since 1936, would stay because the government considers it a historic artifact and not a religious symbol.
Crucifixes in government buildings have been part of the debate over religious symbols in Quebec. Some argue there is a contradiction between the province forbidding public servants from wearing visible religious symbols like the hijab or kippah while keeping the crucifix in the National Assembly.
In Montreal, executive-committee member Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, responsible for democracy and governance, announced the crucifix’s removal from council chamber during Wednesday’s executive-committee meeting.
The administration will move out of city hall on April 15 for three years while the historic building is renovated. Lavigne Lalonde said the move was a good opportunity to remove the crucifix, to reflect the city’s secular status.
“We have to understand that the crucifix was installed in a context, in an era that was completely different from the one we live in today,” she said.
Mayor Valérie Plante said the removal of the cross does not imply a lack of respect for Quebec’s religious heritage.
“We’re in a place in time where it is important to remember that our institutions are secular,” she said, adding that the religious neutrality of democratic institutions was “absolutely crucial.”
But that doesn’t mean we should eliminate beloved landmarks associated with religion, she said.
“We don’t intend to take away the cross on Mount Royal. It’s not a democratic institution where we make decisions,” she said.
In a statement, Montreal archbishop Christian Lépine said the cross has been integral to the city’s history since founder Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve erected one on Mount Royal in 1643. He noted that it was installed at city hall in 1937 “to recognize our history and our roots.”
Lépine said he learned of the decision to remove the crucifix Wednesday.
While it’s up to elected officials to make the decision, Lépine said “the crucifix remains a living symbol (that) symbolizes openness and respect toward all peoples, including toward other faith communities and religious traditions” and that Montrealers can be proud of its legacy.
The crucifix was hung at the initiative of alderman Joseph-Émile Dubreuil, a member of Montreal city council from 1932-1954 and later a Liberal member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly. It was meant to remind councillors that they had sworn an oath before God, Lavigne Lalonde said.
“Now we live in a society that has evolved enormously and is represented by institutions that are democratic and that must be secular, neutral and open to all citizens,” she said.
When city hall, at 275 Notre-Dame St., reopens in three years, the crucifix will be displayed in a small museum in the renovated building along with other artifacts from the city’s collection, Lavigne Lalonde said.
“There will be a museum space where these elements can be highlighted, where we can contextualize them, and they will also be accessible to all Montrealers and other visitors,” she said.
After his election in 1986, the late mayor Jean Doré abolished the prayer at the beginning of council meetings, replacing it with a moment of silence. In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the town of Saguenay could not open meetings with a prayer, saying the custom infringed on freedom of conscience and religion.
There was talk of removing the crucifix the last time Montreal’s city hall was renovated, in 1992, but it did not happen.
In 2002, the city proposed setting up a committee to study the issue, but the idea was dropped.
“What we have done today is that we have just closed this chapter of our history, but with the objective of highlighting this important part of our history and also reaffirming the secular character of our institution,” Lavigne Lalonde said.
Opposition Leader Lionel Perez slammed the decision, saying the city should have held public consultations first. “It’s really coming out of nowhere,” he said.
Perez wears a kippah and has often defended the right to wear religious symbols, but he declined to say whether he thinks the crucifix should stay or go.
In an interview with Le Devoir in 2013, he said the crucifix would eventually be taken down but there was no need to rush.
“Where’s the urgency? What’s this rush to be able to make this decision?” he said Wednesday, predicting it would divide Montrealers.
Plante said the decision does not affect the city’s 19 boroughs, many of which already don’t have a crucifix.
Dinu Bumbaru, policy director of Heritage Montreal, said the city should have requested an expert opinion from the Conseil du patrimoine de Montreal, an advisory body on heritage, before making the decision.
After saying he respects Montreal’s decision, Legault opened the door to removing the crucifix in the National Assembly.
“Listen, everyone has to compromise,” Legault said. “We will look at the positions of different persons at caucus.”
Asked if the removal of the crucifix is part of the debate over the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s secularism bill, Legault said the subject is on the table.
“Regarding our position, you know very well very soon, in the next few weeks, we will table a bill and this is part of the discussions we’re having right now. There are good arguments (for leaving the crucifix in place), and some arguments against,” Legault said.
“Right now we have a debate. We have to find a compromise, same thing with the grandfather clause.”
But Legault said the government has made no decision on the idea of introducing a clause in the soon-to-be-tabled secularism bill allowing existing public-sector employees in positions of authority to wear symbols.
“I say we still have discussions,” Legault said. “Nothing is decided. I ask you to be patient.”
But at about the same time in
another part of the legislature, Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said the government’s position on the crucifix had not changed.
“We take notice of the city of Montreal’s decision,” Jolin-Barrette told reporters. “Montreal makes its own decisions. We make our own decisions. The crucifix is there. For us, it was always a heritage symbol, a historic symbol like other religious symbols in the blue room.”
The 2008 Bouchard-Taylor Commission on accommodating religious minorities called on the National Assembly to take down the crucifix and move it elsewhere in the building. The assembly flatly rejected that Bouchard-Taylor recommendation, unanimously passing a motion affirming Quebecers’ “attachment to our religious and historic heritage represented by the (legislature’s) crucifix.”
But the issue has repeatedly resurfaced.
Premier Maurice Duplessis’s Union Nationale government installed the crucifix in 1936 to affirm its ties to the Catholic Church. With files from Philip Authier and Andy Riga of the Montreal Gazette