The newly elected government in Canada’s Quebec province is set to ban overt religious attire, including Sikh turbans and Muslim niqabs, in elementary schools, further expanding restrictions on religious expression in public spaces.The move is expected to affect Sikh, Muslim and Jewish children the most.The separatist Parti Québécois came to power in the provincial election held in October, with a ban on schoolchildren wearing overt religious symbols forming part of its election platform.“We were elected on this base, and it’s on this base that we are going to work,” Quebec Education Minister Joël Arseneau was quoted as saying by the Montreal Gazette.In September, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who is now Quebec’s Premier, defended the proposed restrictions, saying that schools already require children to follow certain rules.“It’s accepted that when you send your child to school, there are rules. The vast majority of people will understand that a religious symbol can be removed,” he had said.The proposed ban builds on a series of restrictions introduced by previous governments in Quebec.In April, the previous Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government imposed further limits on religious practices in public universities, government-subsidised private institutions and daycare centres, according to the Montreal Gazette. The measures also prohibited collective religious practices on roads and in parks.Quebec’s push to restrict religious symbols in public spaces began in 2019, when the CAQ government introduced its controversial secularism law. The legislation barred certain public servants in positions of authority from displaying visible symbols of faith, including Sikh turbans and Muslim hijabs.The law covers school teachers, principals and vice-principals, police officers, judges and other law officers. It has faced legal challenges and is currently before Canada’s Supreme Court.Criticising the latest proposal, Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, Quebec spokesperson and Director of Fundamental Freedoms at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), said the province had “progressively expanded restrictions on religious expression”.She said Quebec had first banned certain public-sector employees from wearing religious symbols before extending the restrictions to staff at public schools, publicly funded private schools and public or government-funded daycare centres.“Once again, we’re faced with a solution in search of a problem. And this time, the Quebec government is targeting children, sending a message of exclusion and rejection of difference to every elementary school student,” McNicoll said.