Dozens of Montreal school staff already fired or resigned over expanded religious symbols ban

Dozens of Montreal school staff have either been fired, suspended or decided to resign following Quebec’s new law expanding the ban on religious symbols in schools.

According to the Montreal Association of School Principals, hundreds of other school employees stand to lose their jobs.

“We are talking about hundreds of people … at a time when we have absolutely no one to replace them,” Kathleen Legault, president of the Association montréalaise des directions d’établissement scolaire, told Radio-Canada in an interview.

She said school service centres in the greater Montreal area will be the most affected by a strict application of Bill 94.

The Quebec government passed the bill 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 retroactively ended to when 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. 

Mariem Gharnougui was an educator at a school-run daycare in the Laurentians, but she lost her job in February after refusing to remove her hijab.

Gharnougui was hired in the past school year as a child-care worker at the Centre de services scolaire des Mille-Îles (CSSMI), on Montreal’s North Shore. She was responsible for 18 young students with disabilities. 

“Suddenly, I am being forced to abandon these children I’ve grown attached to and who have become used to me,” Gharnougui said in an interview. 

Gharnougui said she is torn “between my identity, my values and my career.” 

‘They decided not to respect the law’: Drainville

In Quebec City, Bernard Drainville — the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leadership candidate who tabled the legislation 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. And unfortunately, they have to bear the consequences of their own personal choice,” Drainville told reporters on Thursday. 

Dan Mullins, a spokesperson for Lester B. Pearson School Board, acknowledged that Bill 94 affects all schools and service centres in the province but said the board is not ready to comment on the impact “this new requirement is having on our system.”

“The concerns we had when Bill 21 [Quebec’s secularism law] came into effect remain and are amplified because this new legislation is more far-reaching,” Mullins said.

School service centres starting to enforce the law

All school service centres in the Montreal region that Radio-Canada contacted confirmed that they had adapted their recruitment process for employees hired after the law came into effect last fall.

The largest school service centres (CSS) say they are still waiting for clarification from the government before taking action. However, at least two organizations have already begun enforcing it. 

At the CSS des Mille-Îles, eight people were reportedly fired and four others resigned because they refused to remove their religious symbols.

At the CSS de Laval, about 40 employees are on authorized unpaid leave, and five people have resigned. About 20 of them are workers who were already employed by the CSS before March 19, 2025, but had since changed positions.

“We do not wish to lay off our employees; it is truly a last resort,” the CSS de Laval said in a statement. “We must first evaluate other options for these individuals, and we have various processes to follow.” 

Opposition parties push for exemptions

The Quebec Liberals and Québec Solidaire are calling on the government to extend exemptions for Bill 94 until the date of its adoption, rather than when it was tabled.

Ruba Ghazal, co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire, called the law “discriminatory” and said that school staff should not lose their jobs over it. 

“It’s a catastrophe for the students in our schools,” Ghazal said. “It’s very bad for them. There are so many problems in our education system and the government of the CAQ is adding to these problems.”

Madwa-Nika Cadet, Quebec Liberal education critic, said that while MNAs are studying Bill 9 — related legislation which would expand secularism laws even further — she plans to table an amendment with the aim of extending exemptions for workers affected by Bill 94. 

She also took aim at Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s minister responsible for secularism.

“He had the nerve to tell me the situation [in schools] is being improved,” Cadet said.

“We see that this is a disaster and there aren’t going to be services.”