The Quebec government introduced a sweeping public safety bill Wednesday that would ban gangs from displaying their colors, create a sex offender registry and ban protests outside the homes of elected officials.
Public Safety Minister Ian Lafreniere said Bill 13 aims to improve the public's sense of security. Prime Minister Francois Legault instructed the minister to do so during the government's inaugural address to mark the opening of the legislature earlier this fall.
The new bill would prohibit the wearing or display of any patch or symbol that advertises the Department of Public Safety's list of criminal organizations.
“We know very well what the purpose (of the sign) is to intimidate,” Lafreniere said at a news conference. “Today we are sending a message that it is over.”
For example, Quebec residents could be fined up to $5,000 for wearing Hells Angels jackets in public, and criminal gangs would no longer be allowed to display their flags in their clubs.
Lafreniere said the goal is to stop the “glorification of criminal gangs” who currently operate with impunity. The symbols and images will be entered into a public register compiled by the police.
Receive daily national news
Get the day's top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
“It will become illegal to drive around the city with a truck full of junk to promote your criminal gang,” said Lafrenière, a former Montreal police officer.
The bill also creates a registry of sex offenders who are released from prison and considered to be at high risk of reoffending. Such registries already exist in other provinces.
Lafreniere notes that with this knowledge, local residents could take precautions. But the bill states that it is important to avoid vigilante justice for offenders released from prison.
“Their term has expired, there is no other security system,” the minister said. “We're adding another network.”
He estimated the annual cost of such a registry at $1.3 million and estimates that about 100 cases could end up on the registry after being assessed by a committee of five experts.
The proposed law would also ban demonstrations within a 50-metre radius of politicians' personal residences.
Additionally, the bill would prohibit the possession or throwing of certain objects that could be used to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person, or that could cause harm during a demonstration.
For example, the legislation would make it illegal to appear with “a tool, a billiard ball, a piece of paving stone or a weapon such as an air gun, bow, crossbow, knife or chemical substance.”
Police officers will have the right to search a person and “their immediate environment” without a warrant if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person is in possession of such an item.
The idea, Lafreniere said, is to “better equip police officers.”
“I don't know many people who go to demonstrations with billiard balls because they have a passion for juggling,” he said.
But he acknowledged such discretionary checks are a “sensitive” issue and hopes to hear feedback when the bill is considered by a parliamentary committee.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
