Religious education in Quebec and Canadian constitutional values: History, recent developments and future prospects

In this paper, we study the links between the teaching of religion and constitutional values through the history of Quebec. This history has been marked by two phases. The first phase started in 1867 with the adoption of the British North America Act that protected denominational Catholic and Protestant Education. The second phase is the one with the single compulsory non-denominational course, that was established in 2008. This system can be associated with the values of democracy, federalism, constitutionalism and the rule of law. The Ethics and Religious Culture course can be associated with these values, but also with that of protection of minorities. However, this course has always been the object of criticism. The current government is creating a new course called Culture and Citizenship in Québec. By analyzing the relationship between this new course and these values, we want to demonstrate that it reflects these values, although there could be a debate about how it reflects the protection of minorities.