Passage of Quebec’s Bill 21 is a declaration of war by Francois Legault on people of faith, particularly Quebec’s racialized religious minorities

By Fareed Khan
 
Following a weekend of intense debate and voting in the Quebec National Assembly last week, Premier Francois Legault’s CAQ government passed its much criticized “secularism” bill (Bill 21), with Parti Quebecois members also supporting the legislation. Members of the National Assembly from the Liberal and Quebec Solidaire parties voted against the bill.

 

Passage of this bill is a dark day for Quebec. It is nothing short of a declaration of war on freedom of religion in the province, a blatant violation of the Charter rights of people of faith (particularly racialized, religious minorities), and an example of radical atheism shrouded in the language of extremist secularism.By passing this bill into law Legault has energized two groups of people in Quebec. He has energized bigots, racists, and those with a prejudice against the increasingly multicultural face of Quebec, who support this bill. But he has also energized anti-racism activists and those who support human rights and our charter rights to now carry the fight forward against what civil liberties and human rights lawyers have called an assault on fundamental freedoms.

Legault claims that this bill is about keeping Quebec society secular. However, this is not what this bill does. Secularism is the principle of the state refraining from declaring an official state religion. What this bill does is it enshrines in law the ideology that atheism is the state “religion”, and the government is going to impose it on anybody who decides to display their faith and work in the public sector.

Even more worrisome is a last minute government amendment to the bill that would create what the opposition Liberals likened to an anti-religious “secularism police force”, similar to the “religious police” found in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran. The legislation itself is odious, but this amendment is inexcusable since it is the sort of thing that one finds in repressive authoritarian regimes which try to control the lives of their citizens.

Passage of the bill has elicited condemnation from various human rights and civil liberties groups, as well as from organizations representing the Muslim, Jewish and Sikh communities. In addition, a legal challenge to the law has already been filed in Quebec Superior Court by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

In the court filing the CCLA called the law “impermissibly vague, impossible to apply equally, and a blatant attack on religious freedom.” Both groups have also argued that the ban “violates religious freedoms and discriminates against a woman’s right to equal treatment in the workplace.”

The passage of Bill 21 is the latest sign of the rising tide of bigotry targeting religious minorities, and particularly Muslims, that has found deep roots in Quebec, including evidently among certain segments of the political class. This battle has been on-going since the appointment of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on “reasonable accommodation” by Premier Jean Charest in 2007. However, until Legault and the CAQ came to power no government was willing to openly violate the fundamental religious freedoms of its minority faith communities, and override the rights guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by invoking the “notwithstanding” clause.

Premier Legault’s justification for this bill is that he has a mandate, and that the bill is supported by a majority of Quebecers. However, at one time a majority of people supported denying women the right to vote. At one time a majority supported denying rights to the LGBTQ community. There are many past examples of immoral and unjust laws that were once supported by the majority, but that didn’t make them right, and Bill 21 falls into the same category.

By declaring war on people of faith Premier Legault will find that he has bitten off more than he can chew, and will come to regret siding with the voices of prejudice and bigotry in Quebec rather than supporting those who call for upholding human rights and civil liberties.

© 2019 Fareed Khan.  © 2019 Fareed Khan.  All rights reserved.