Globe Editorial: Anyone Can Criticize Quebec’s Religious Symbols Act, But Only Quebecers Can Correct It

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Bill 21, the Quebec law that prohibits some provincial employees from wearing religious clothing at work, is back in the news after a grade 3 teacher was fired this month for having wore a hijab.

The Western Quebec School Board transferred Fatemeh Anvari to a non-teaching position at an elementary school in Chelsea, Que., After deciding that Bill 21 left her no choice.

As the first concrete example of the consequences of the law, Ms. Anvari’s story reignited a debate about the law that has become too polarized – with supporters playing on that polarization and selling a us versus them, Quebec versus Canada narrative.

Premier François Legault and others call critics of Bill 21 from outside the province a “denigration of Quebec”. As for the many Quebecers who oppose the law, they are accused of undermining the values ​​of the province – of “lese-Québécitude”, as a French-speaking columnist parodied this week.

Which is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the wisest course for him was to choose his words wisely.

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He said he was “deeply” at odds with the law but, by not making it another French-English hot potato, he can create space for Quebeckers – a substantial minority of whom oppose the law. law – to challenge Bill 21 without fear of being labeled as enemies of the province.

And the cold legal reality is that there is little room for Ottawa to intervene other than rhetorically. The law falls under provincial jurisdiction and is largely protected against Charter challenges by the National Assembly invoking the notwithstanding the Constitution clause.

But now that the drawbacks of Bill 21 have passed the theoretical stage and are linked to concrete prejudices for a true Quebecer, others in the province are re-examining the law and moving beyond the polarizing language that has blocked reasonable debate.

For example, it is suddenly normal to note that the government of the Coalition Avenir Québec of Mr. Legault has never demonstrated that its “Law on the secularism of the State” of 2019 was necessary to preserve the status of secularism. from Quebec (and Canada).

The law assumes there is a problem it is trying to solve, but what is it? Other provinces allow teachers to wear the hijab to work. Federal and provincial employees are not prohibited from wearing turbans, hijabs or kippahs in their interactions with the public. One way or another, Canada has not been transformed into a religious state.

Critics in Quebec have also pointed out, especially since Ms. Anvari’s case was revealed, that Bill 21, which was based on the recommendations of the 2008 Bouchard-Taylor commission report on religious accommodation, will further than this report requires.

The commission recommended banning religious clothing for people in positions of coercive power, such as police officers and judges. The CAQ has added teachers to the list.

In addition, a columnist for La Presse noted this week that Quebec, facing a serious shortage of teachers, has hired up to 30,000 unlicensed instructors. They are not fully qualified to teach, but are tolerated under the circumstances. And yet, a qualified and licensed teacher does not get any exemptions and has been banned from the class because of her religion.

Perhaps most damning, Quebec Superior Court judge Marc-André Blanchard ruled in April that Bill 21 violates fundamental religious freedoms. It can be “easily understood,” he wrote, that forcing a person to choose between their faith and a job “has a cruel consequence that dehumanizes those it targets” – people like Ms. Anvari.

The judge said the law was nonetheless beyond his power to quash because of the notwithstanding clause. But this constitutional shield expires every five years. It will only remain in force if it is regularly renewed, like an anti-Charter reminder, by the provincial legislature.

Bill 21 lives entirely in the realm of politics – where, over the past week, it has come under increasing scrutiny and welcome to the bar of Quebec public opinion. Criticism of the absurdity of sidelining a beloved and much-needed teacher has been spread widely in the French-language media.

The only way to change Bill 21 now is through politics – Quebec politics. Those outside the province who oppose the law, like us, should not silence their critics. But the strongest voices against the law, and the only ones who can change it, must ultimately come from within Quebec.

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