Category: Bill 21

Federal Government Would Join Challenge of Quebec’s Bill 21 at Supreme Court

The federal government will join a legal challenge to Quebec’s religious symbols law if it reaches the country’s highest court, Justice Minister David Lametti said Wednesday. “When it arrives at the Supreme Court of Canada, it is by definition a national issue, and we will be there,” Lametti told reporters in Montreal. Both the Quebec…


Toronto City Council Approves Funds for Legal Challenge to Quebec’s Secularism Law

Toronto city council has unanimously voted in support of a motion proposed by Mayor John Tory to provide $100,000 for a legal challenge against Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21. A statement from the council said the move reaffirmed the city’s opposition to the bill, which prohibits public servants in positions of authority from wearing religious…


Calls Mount for Feds to Challenge Quebec Secularism Law

Pressure is mounting on the Liberal government to challenge Quebec’s Bill 21 after a teacher wearing a hijab was removed from her classroom earlier this month. Fatemeh Anvari, who taught in a Chelsea elementary school, part of the Western Québec School Board, was removed from her teaching position for wearing a hijab in the classroom…


What Will It Take to Bring Sanity Back to Quebec Schools?

Commentary Perhaps it will take Quebec schoolchildren imitating their counterparts of a century ago to restore sanity to adults responsible for the disgrace of a hijab-wearing teacher being removed from a classroom. Little else seems capable of lifting the veil of political obtuseness obscuring the real-world infamy of the province’s law banning the wearing of…


Quebec Religious Symbols Ban Will Apply to English Schools Until Appeal Decided

The Quebec Court of Appeal will not allow the English Montreal School Board to hire teachers who wear religious symbols while an appeal of a lower court decision on Quebec’s secularism law is being decided. The school board had sought to have a Superior Court decision that exempted English-language school boards from the law, which…


Legault in Favour of Conservative Minority, Wary of Liberals, NDP and Greens

In the wake of the Sept. 8 French-language debate, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said he is in favour of a Conservative minority government, while being critical of the Liberals, NDP, and Green Party. Legault praised Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, particularly on his promise to increase health transfers to Quebec without conditions. “The Conservative Party has…


Quebec Court Upholds Most of Province’s Controversial Secularism Law

MONTREAL—The Quebec Superior Court has largely upheld the province’s law that bans certain public sector workers from wearing religious symbols on the job. Justice Marc-Andre Blanchard did however rule that certain provisions of the law are unconstitutional as they pertain to English school boards. The judge also struck down a ban on members of the…


Quebec Court Upholds Most of Province’s Controversial Secularism Law, Exempts English School Boards

MONTREAL—The Quebec Superior Court has largely upheld the province’s law that bans certain public sector workers from wearing religious symbols on the job. Justice Marc-Andre Blanchard did however rule that certain provisions of the law are unconstitutional as they pertain to English school boards. The judge also struck down a ban on members of the…