Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Montreal’s largest school board has lost more than 100 support staff because they refused to remove religious symbols to comply with the province’s new secularism law.
The law, known as Bill 94, expanded a ban on wearing religious symbols, like crosses and hijabs, to include support staff workers in schools — lunchroom monitors and special education technicians, for example.
Several school service centres told Radio-Canada in February that dozens of staff had already been fired, suspended or decided to resign because of Bill 94.
Now, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), says it, too, has had to let staff go.
A spokesperson for the CSSDM told Radio-Canada that the service centre had recently delivered hundreds of letters to staff members who were at risk of losing their jobs if they didn’t remove a religious symbol in compliance with the new law.
Many of them decided to comply with the law, according to the spokesperson — meaning that they agreed to remove a religious symbol.
But approximately 150 did not.
Michel Picard, the head of the APPA CSN, the union that represents most support staff workers in Montreal, said the cuts have already caused distress inside schools.
“[Students] saw their support staff quit the school and they don’t know why so they cry,” he said. “Everybody cries because it’s unfair.”
The cuts also risk exacerbating staffing shortages, according to the union.
But the CSSDM says that despite the cuts they will have enough staff to continue providing services to students.
Annie Charland, the president of the school support section of the FEESP union, which is also under the CSN banner and represents support staff, said the employees were facing an impossible choice.
“I call that a false choice when they tell people, ‘you have to choose: either work or take off your hijab,’” she said.
“It’s their integrity that’s being undermined. I find it hard to tell people that — we’re asking them to choose between their job and their religion.”
The Quebec government passed Bill 94 in October 2025, extending the province’s ban on religious symbols from just teachers and principals to everyone who interacts with students in schools.
Quebec had included an exception for employees who were already working in school service centres, but that protection only applies up until the date the bill was tabled.
As a result, employees who changed positions or who were hired between March 19 — the day the bill was tabled — and Oct. 30 2025, the day the bill was adopted, are not eligible for the exemption.
In February, Bernard Drainville, who tabled Bill 94 while education minister, said employees impacted by the law could have removed their religious symbols during working hours but chose not to.
“They decided not to respect the law and therefore, it’s their decision,” he said. “And unfortunately, they have to bear the consequences of their own personal choice.”
A spokesperson for the Education Ministry said Thursday that the law was adopted by the National Assembly and, “like any law, it must be respected.”
The education ministry’s online database that tracks staffing numbers in the education system says there are currently 1,135 unfilled support staff jobs across the province — about three per cent of total support staff positions.
The Quebec government has since passed another secularism law, known as Bill 9, that puts limits on praying in public and extends a ban on wearing religious symbols to daycare workers.
