Bill 21 challenged in court by the lawyer who faced down Bill 62

Catherine McKenzie filed suit in Quebec Superior Court Monday on behalf of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and National Council of Canadian Muslims.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/bill-21-is-about-to-be-challenged-by-the-lawyer-who-faced-down-bill-62?fbclid=IwAR2MOkUNzD3bgi0DG-KKY5xXdV3NW7QEREy6y59UGsN8XljAHA48XKAlT84

The battle over Quebec’s religious symbols ban is underway.

A legal challenge filed in Superior Court on Monday calls the bill a blatant attack on religious liberty and contrary to the rule of law. It argues that Bill 21 coerces people to abandon their deepest held convictions if they want to belong to Quebec society.

Bill 21 prevents certain civil servants — including police officers, judges and public school teachers — from wearing religious symbols and garb on the job ...

Bill 21 is divisive and unnecessary, Montreal school officials say

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bill-21-is-divisive-and-unnecessary-school-boards-association-says?fbclid=IwAR17iGOPou3rgx_gC6OFsDPu-XsWId1kDvrzugRivQSbCtusCxMj34y2mn4

Quebec’s new secularism law is divisive, unnecessary and contrary to the values taught in English schools, Russell Copeman, the executive director of the Quebec English School Boards Association, said on Monday.
On a practical level, the law will be very difficult, if not impossible to enforce, he said.
“The law creates various categories of employees who will not be able to wear religious symbols and contains a grandfather clause (for current teachers provided they don’t change job titles or school boards).”
There could easily be a situation where a new principal posted to a school sees an employee wearing a hijab, but does not know whether the employee is a teacher, a school psychologist, a lunch monitor or an after-school monitor.

Statement by [Concordia University] Department of Education on Bill 21

http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/artsci/education/2019/04/12/Statement-by-Department-of-Education-on-Bill-21.html
 
We, the undersigned, affirm our total opposition to and rejection of Bill 21, An Act respecting the laicity of the State, deposited by the provincial government at the Assemblée Nationale on March 28, 2019. We believe that teachers and education professionals demonstrate our commitment to Québec’s secular society through our teaching. Those of us who wear symbols of religious faith are valued and important members of the teaching community, and are not a threat to secular society in Québec.

One of the aims of the Québec Education Program (Programme de formation de l’école Québecoise) is for learners to:
·      acquire or consolidate…an understanding of how all individuals are equal in terms of right and dignity (d'acquérir ou de consolider… la notion selon laquelle toutes les personnes sont égales sur le plan des droits et de la dignité).

Bill 21 is an attack on the values promoted in the Québec Education Program (QEP)­. The inclusive spirit of the QEP does not discriminate against particular faith traditions ...

William Johnson: The legal status of English in Quebec

http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=79c98166-3381-429f-8a64-856ac7f1d527&p=1

During the 1995 referendum, I maintained in The Gazette that a referendum did not confer a right to secede unilaterally and that, if Canada was divisible, Quebec was also divisible. That shocked even good anglos but my position was confirmed in August 1998 by the Supreme Court of Canada ...

In their analysis of Bill 22, Frank Scott, John Humphrey (who had drafted the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Irwin Cotler and four others wrote: "Section 1 which provides that French is 'the official language of the province of Quebec' is misleading in that it suggests that English is not also an official language in Quebec, which it is by virtue of Section 133 of the BNA Act and the federal Official Languages Act."

These eminent legal authorities asserted: "To promote the two cultures on the basis of equality and to allow them freedom for their natural growth and development is, we believe, the only proper policy for Quebec and for Canada, and the only one consistent with contemporary international standards of human rights."

In his initial draft of what became Bill 101, Camille Laurin had this in Section 1: "Le français est la seule langue officielle du Québec." But he was persuaded to drop seule when he was told that it would certainly be struck down by the courts, thus confirming that English was also an official language of Quebec ..1

Québec’s Trump-like immigration policies contradict Canada’s welcoming image

https://theconversation.com/quebecs-trump-like-immigration-policies-contradict-canadas-welcoming-image-112482