Petition · Quebec Life Coalition
Put the crucifix back in Quebec’s National Assembly. Take down a people’s symbols, and others move in.
In 2019, the crucifix was taken down from Quebec’s National Assembly in the name of neutrality. On October 20, 2026, we saw what moves onto an empty wall. Ask the Government of Quebec and the members of the National Assembly to put the crucifix back where it belongs.
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An empty wall never stays empty for long
On October 20, as members were sworn in at Quebec’s National Assembly, Ruba Ghazal of Québec solidaire waved a keffiyeh. The scarf has become the emblem of the Palestinian cause, and protest movements of every kind have taken it up across the West. Many people were shocked: a petition demanding her resignation drew tens of thousands of signatures, even though a member of the National Assembly cannot be removed from office that way.
A swearing-in should be about the Quebec the new members are about to serve, not about a foreign cause. How can this happen in a Quebec that prides itself on being so secular? Perhaps precisely because it prides itself on being secular.
In 2019, the crucifix that had hung in the Assembly’s chamber since 1936 was taken down in the name of state neutrality. But “neutral” means neither one thing nor the other, which is to say a void. Take down the crucifix, and with it the morality and the God it stands for, and other symbols, beliefs and ideologies move into the space left behind.
That void shows elsewhere too. Quebec no longer has enough children to renew itself, while some 20,000 abortions are committed there every year and the main effort goes into making abortion easier still. A people taught to despise its past, and the faith that helped it grow, can neither grow nor pass on what it received.
Quebec doesn’t need the crucifix taken down. It needs to rediscover its spirit: great things are only ever done through sacrifice.
From the crucifix to the keffiyeh
- 1936A crucifix is hung in the Assembly’s chamberOn Maurice Duplessis’s initiative, it hangs above the Speaker’s chair. A new crucifix replaces the first in 1982.
- March 28, 2019A unanimous motion to remove itIt passes the same day Quebec’s secularism bill, Bill 21, is tabled.
- July 9, 2019The crucifix comes downWhile the members are on summer break, a white-gloved employee takes it off the wall.
- October 20, 2026A keffiyeh in the Red RoomA member waves it at her swearing-in as colleagues applaud.
Petition text
Put the crucifix back in Quebec’s National Assembly
To the Government of Quebec and the members of the National Assembly
The undersigned ask
the Government of Quebec and the members of the National Assembly to put the crucifix back in its place above the Speaker’s chair, in recognition of the Christian heritage that shaped Quebec.
This petition is an initiative of Quebec Life Coalition. Don’t live in Quebec? Sign anyway.
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They signed
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- D Denis
- D Danuta Toronto
- I Ibrahim
- A Allynne Langley
- A Annie Elliot Lake
- M Marian Mississauga
- D Dawn Barrie
- J jerry Vancouver
- G Gwen
- R Rachael West Kelowna
- P Patric Montréal
- D Dorothy Port Alberni
- D Dragica Omiš
- V Valerie
- J John Hawkestone
- L Loralee Low
- C Colleen Kenosee Lake
- K Ken Winnipeg
- K Kristy Mississauga
- D Dorothy Kitchener
Sources
- Radio-Canada, October 21, 2026, on Ruba Ghazal waving a keffiyeh at the swearing-in.
- Radio-Canada, March 28, 2019, unanimous motion to remove the crucifix, tabled the same day as Bill 21.
- Le Soleil, July 9, 2019, removal of the crucifix from the Assembly chamber.
- National Assembly of Quebec, news release of July 9, 2019 (removal of the 1982 crucifix, which replaced the one hung in 1936).
- Noovo, April 30, 2025, about 20,000 abortions a year in Quebec (Dr. Diane Francoeur).