Bill 21: Legault government accuses Ottawa of ‘hypocrisy’

The Legault government accuses the federal government of “hypocrisy” and of attacking provincial sovereignty with its desire to regulate the use of the notwithstanding clause, invoked for Bill on State Secularism.

“Be sure of one thing, we will fight to the end to defend the law banning religious symbols,” Premier François Legault assured reporters at a press conference at the National Assembly on Thursday.

The federal government is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to regulate how provincial governments can invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which can be used to protect a law from constitutional challenges.

Ottawa made this request in a brief filed with the Court on Wednesday in the case concerning the Act respecting the laicity of the State, commonly known as Bill 21.

The Attorney General of Canada argued that repeated use of this clause amounted to “indirectly amending the Constitution” and that the Court should be able to rule on whether this could result in an “irreparable infringement” of Canadians’ rights.

However, Ottawa has not commented on the substance of the Secularism Act.

‘The light bulb has burned out in Ottawa’

The minister responsible for secularism, Jean-François Roberge, says that Ottawa’s stance is “a direct attack on our model of living together” and “a direct attack on Bill 21.”

“When the Canadian government tells us: ‘I’m not against secularism, but I’m against the measure that protects secularism,’ I’ll tell you, that’s hypocritical,” he said.

“Very clearly, the light bulb is burned out in Ottawa,” added his colleague, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette.

According to him, the federal government is trying to “go through the back door” to “attack the sovereignty of Canada’s parliaments.”

“Whether you’re from Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, New Brunswick, or Quebec, every society has the right to choose for its people,” he argued.

Bill 21 prohibits people in positions of authority, including judges, Crown prosecutors, police officers, correctional officers, and elementary and secondary school teachers, from wearing religious symbols.

It was passed under gag order in 2019 by François Legault’s CAQ government, which hoped to put an end to the debate on “reasonable accommodations” in Quebec.

In February 2024, the Court of Appeal upheld Bill 21 and affirmed that Quebec had the right to use the notwithstanding clause preventively. However, the Court of Appeal rendered ineffective the section of the law that required elected officials to perform their duties with their faces uncovered.

In recent years, the federal government has focused on denouncing what it calls the “preventive” use of the notwithstanding clause. This provision of the Constitution has been used by the Quebec government in the case of the Secularism Act, but also by other provinces, including Ontario.

On Wednesday, the Parti Québécois also strongly denounced the federal government’s attitude.

“The Carney government claims it is not attacking Quebec’s model of secularism, yet it is asking unelected judges to unilaterally modify the application of the notwithstanding clause, which was a sine qua non condition for the Canadian provinces to agree to the repatriation of the 1982 Constitution. This decision goes beyond secularism itself; it signals that Ottawa no longer wishes to deal with the legitimate choices of the Quebec people,” said PQ MNA Alex Boissonneault in a press release.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews