It has been as likely to veer off into the ridiculous as to clear the way for an inclusive society. If there are overriding principles guiding its progress, it's not clear what they are. Crucifixes are left to preside over meetings at town halls while little poppets in daycare centres are forbidden from singing O Holy Night at Christmas.
This week, thanks to a legal challenge mounted by Quebecers for Equal Rights to Subsidized Day Cares, all Quebecers got a look at the new rules governing daycare centres. These rules, which came into effect Wednesday, are impossible to understand, never mind apply. Arts and crafts or songs that might teach a "belief, a dogma or the practice of a specific religion" are banned. Au clair de la lune, a song much beloved by generations of small children in the province, could be banned from publicly subsidized daycares because its lyrics contain a reference to God.
The new daycare rules are part of Quebec's long, chaotic progress to a modern state, a principal characteristic of which is to be - or so one is told - an absence of religion.
And it's true, some religious practices have been banned. No Sikh ceremonial daggers will be allowed in the Quebec National Assembly. Any woman wearing a veil cannot expect to be served in provincial institutions, including schools.
One could argue that such bans are the result of popular demand or, however misplaced, concerns for safety or fears that women are coerced into wearing face veils. But nothing excuses the heavy-handed bureaucratic excesses that have led to banning story books with biblical references or activities that reflect a religious culture.
Daycare centres take care of small children, age 4 and under. The most successful centres have the warmth and familiarity of a home away from home. Banning nursery rhymes, songs, dances and other activities well-known to the children can hardly be helpful to their sense of belonging.
The larger problem is that Quebec has not figured out yet where it wants to go in terms of secularism. Unfortunately, anxious to be seen doing something, it has stumbled into politicizing children's activities in daycare centres.
This is not worthy of Quebec. It should admit it is wrong and drop the regulations. They are ridiculous.