The Mouvement laïque québécois (MLQ) (unofficially, the 'Quebec Secular Movement') is a non-profit organisation whose goal is to defend and promote freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, and secularisation of public institutions in Quebec.
The MLQ was founded in 1981 by parents who disagreed with the Quebec public school system including only Catholic or Protestant religious education as requirements of the general curriculum; they thought there should be secular alternatives.
In 1987, the MLQ collaborated with senator Jacques Hébert to prevent the adoption of a private bill that would have enabled Opus Dei, a Catholic lay organization, to bypass Canadian fiscal law as a religious institution.
In the same year, the MLQ petitioned the Federal Department of Justice to withdraw Bibles from courts, so that solemn affirmations would be recognized as valid.
After a lengthy process, the case reached the Canadian Supreme Court, which in April 2015 ruled that the city's practices were unconstitutional, as they violated protections of freedom of conscience and religion.