Canada’s top court to hear challenge to controversial Quebec secularism law
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Federal government appeals against law critics say disproportionately affects hijab-wearing Muslim women. Canada’s top court has agreed to hear a challenge to Quebec’s controversial secularism law, paving the way for a fierce debate over provincial powers and the fundamental rights of ethnic and religious minorities.
The supreme court signaled on Thursday that it would grant leave to appeal against the 2019 law which prohibits certain public workers in positions of authority – including judges, police officers, prison guards and teachers – from wearing religious symbols while at work. Other public workers such as bus drivers, doctors and social workers must only keep their faces uncovered.
The legislation does not name specific religious symbols, and theoretically all symbols – kippahs, turbans, crosses – are equally prohibited, but critics of the law says it disproportionately affects Muslim women who wear the hijab. Quebec’s justice minister and the minister responsible for secularism said they would defend the law “until the end” in a joint statement.
“It is primordial, even vital, for Quebec to be able to make its own choices, choices that correspond to our history, to our distinct social values and the aspirations of our nation,” the statement said, calling the prospect of federal intervention disrespectful and an affront to Quebec’s autonomy.
The law arguably violates key tenets of Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms but the province has used an arcane legislative mechanism known as the “notwithstanding clause” to override certain parts of the charter. A government can only invoke the clause for five years before it must be renewed. Quebec’s national assembly passed the secularism bill into law in 2019, last renewing the clause in 2024.
