FAE turns to the Supreme Court to challenge Quebec’s Bill 21

The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE) announced on Monday that it has filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Canada to challenge the Quebec’s secularism law; Bill 21. The law bans public sector employees in positions of authority, like teachers, police officers, and judges, from wearing religious symbols while on the job.

In a press release, the FAE said that it is opposed to the notwithstanding clause, which allowed the Quebec government to adopt the law without the ability to be challenged under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In February, Minister Responsible for Laicity Jean-François Roberge tabled a bill aimed at renewing the notwithstanding clause for another five years after being adopted in 2019.

“We must be wary of the ease at which parliaments suspend our fundamental rights by excessive use of derogation clauses,” said the FAE.

The FAE believes that for the notwithstanding clause to be effective, the government who uses it should have to demonstrate that the objective is “real and urgent,” and that a citizen makes the request.

The teacher’s union wants the Supreme Court to overlook the decision by Quebec’s Court of Appeal, which deemed Bill 21 constitutional and did not violate the linguistic rights of English-speaking school boards.

The Court of Appeal also confirmed that Quebec had the right to use the override provision in a preventive manner as it did with Bill 21.

The federal government has already indicated that it would participate in a possible legal challenge before the Supreme Court, while in Quebec, it has always promised to defend secularism “to the end.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews