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opinions
Quebec’s Charter of Values has electoral conseadded to the Oakes test to determine whether Ottawa bartender turned Quebec MP who
quences
an abrogation of rights is justifiable under s.1 won while partying her whole campaign on
NICK BANERD
Contributor
AT FIRST, I was somewhat ambivalent
about my stance on the Quebec Charter of
Values.
I have always fervently supported the idea
of a secular state. The Parti Quebecois’ ban
on religious symbols would only apply to
state-workers, and citizens seeking government services. The ban does not go so far as
restrictions in France, which bans face coverings in all public areas and restricts religious
symbols among pupils in schools. However, I
question whether a postman wearing a turban
or a nurse wearing a hijab would indeed
convey the pernicious message that the relevant religion is sponsored or supported by the
state. In a heavily-criticized open letter by a
group of female Quebec public figures dubbed
“the Janettes,” the authors suggested that they
“would be afraid to be treated by a Muslim
doctor wearing a veil.” Thus, despite their socalled secularist agenda, and the equal burden
on the Judeo-Christian populace to remove
their “conspicuous” kippahs and crucifixes,
the PQ is again tainted by claims of racism
and intolerance (à la Jacques Parizeau, circa
1995). Ironically, a doctor wearing a kippah
recently treated Mme. Marois herself at Montreal’s Jewish Hospital. The PQ would need
to call a new election, and win a majority in
order to pass the Charter of Values, or else
negotiate with the CAQ powerbrokers, who
have called for significant revisions to the
original draft.
Either way, the Charter of Values would
almost uncertainly be ruled unconstitutional
by the Supreme Court under s.15. Subject to
popular support and the views of her caucus,
Marois could invoke the notwithstanding
clause (an override even Liberal Premiers
such as Mr. Bourassa and Mr. Charest have
used on the subjects of public schools and language); defying the Supreme Court while parroting the now-banal fact that Quebec never
signed CA 1982. Mr. Mulroney tried his best
to rectify this, as the skeletons of Meech and
Charlottetown still lie un-exhumed in the
bone yard of Canadian constitutional amendments. I don’t think the Quebec Charter is
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