Section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that everyone has the fundamental right to “freedom of conscience and religion.” It’s a freedom so fundamental that it is the first point among those listed in Section 2.
It is terrible that a government would prevent freedom of religion, which is arguably the defining right of a truly free society. If you do not have the right to practice your religion both publicly and privately, then you are being deprived from taking the steps according to your religion to achieve salvation.
Which is why I am yet again disappointed, but not surprised, to hear the new Minister of Education in Quebec, Joël Arseneau, reaffirm the party’s election promise to expand Quebec’s secularism law to ban the wearing of “conspicuous religious symbols” by school children in public schools.
Quebec’s secularism laws have already taken things too far. For example, the original religious symbols ban, Bill 21, prohibiting specific public sector employees in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols — think teachers, school principals, police officers, judges, etc. — that Bill was passed in 2019 under Francois Legault’s CAQ government.
And again earlier this year with Bill 9, which, among other things, expanded the ban on religious symbols to subsidized daycare workers and staff in private schools, as well as placed bans on prayer spaces in post-secondary institutions, prohibits public institutions from offering exclusively religious-based menus — such as halal or kosher — and restricts public religious events or group prayers in public spaces. This was also passed under Francois Legault’s CAQ government.
So now with the new Parti Québécois government, led by Paul St. Pierre Plamondon’s commitment to expand the secularism law, it provides us with a look at the “bipartisan” disdain and the will to oppress religious people, particularly religious minorities of their province by the main Separatist/Autonomous parties in Quebec.
The government having the ability to tell a Catholic child that they cannot wear a crucifix necklace at school is wrong and an overreach of its duty. It is even worse for a government to tell a child that they cannot wear something that their religion states is mandatory to wear, whether it be a Muslim girl with a hijab, a Jewish child with a Kippah or a Sikh with a turban.
To deny the right of any of these children (or adults working in the public sector as stated by previous secularism laws) to wear their religious symbols or to have access to a prayer room is not only racist, elitist, and bigoted, but also very unconstitutional, which is why I won’t be surprised at all when the Quebec government invokes the notwithstanding clause to pass it, as they have previously done with Bills 9 and 21, with Bill 21 currently in the Supreme Court of Canada due to arguments about how the government used the notwithstanding clause.
Every federal major party leader should condemn this new commitment, and Prime Minister Mark Carney should vow to fight it at the federal level as he did for Bill 21 when campaigning in the Liberal Leadership race.
In the past there have been mixed reactions from the federal parties when it came to similar legislation, which I can only really assume is an attempt to pander to Quebec, as I cannot even begin to imagine the valid reaction and response if this exact legislation was passed by the province of Alberta, or even the real reaction that did happen among the then opposition parties when Harper’s government attempted to ban religious face covering during citizenship ceremonies.
There is no difference, and the responses from everyone involved in the politics of our country should be the same. We as a nation must stand up against hate, against racism, and against blatant bigotry towards religious people.
This new commitment from the Quebec government, along with the secularism laws of the previous administration is wrong, unconstitutional and cruel. Canada is a nation of tolerance towards people of all faiths, and we should never banish them from the public sphere.