'Draconian' bill will 'infringe fundamental rights and freedoms of teachers, staff and students'
The Quebec government has introduced new legislation that would expand its controversial ban on religious symbols to include a broader range of school employees.
Bill 94 would prohibit school support staff – such as lunchroom and after-school care monitors, administrative secretaries, and volunteer librarians – from wearing religious symbols, including items like the hijab or kippa, in the workplace, according to a report by CBC News.
The legislation is an attempt to strengthen secularism in schools.
"In Quebec, we made the decision that state and the religion are separate. And today we say the public schools are separate from religion," said Bernard Drainville, minister of education, in the report.
A previous report noted that the provincial government is considering doing this move. Quebec’s Bill 21 was passed in 2019 and prohibits public servants deemed to be in positions of authority – including teachers, police officers and judges – from wearing religious symbols.
Drainville pushed for new legislation to further strengthen secularism in the province’s education system after a recent investigation into religious influence in Quebec schools. The Ministry of Education examined allegations at 17 schools after a report found that teachers at Bedford Elementary School in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges had introduced religious ideas in the classroom, contributing to what was described as a toxic environment, according to a previous CBC report.
Among the key issues identified were cases of students wearing full veils inside classrooms – something Drainville said was unacceptable. Investigators also found that some teachers were omitting parts of the sexual education curriculum or avoiding topics like homosexuality due to religious beliefs. Additionally, some students were engaging in prayer at school, despite a government ban, said the CBC report.
The government is invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to shield the bill from constitutional challenges, as it did with Bill 21, according to CBC. Bill 21 is facing a challenge at the Supreme Court after the Quebec Court of Appeal decided that the legislation is constitutional.
Numerous stakeholders have spoken up against Quebec’s new legislation.
Bill 94 "potentially infringes" on individual freedoms, specifically for women working in Quebec schools, said Sol Zanetti, education critic for the opposition party Québec Solidaire.
"What guarantees secularism is what's in people's heads, not on their heads," he said in the CBC report. "The CAQ should lead by example and stop sending hundreds of millions of public funds to religious schools every year."
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) said the legislation is another infringement on their rights and unfairly targets hijab-wearing Muslims.
“This renewed attack on the fundamental rights of our community is just one of several recent actions taken by this historically unpopular government to bolster their poll numbers by attacking the rights of Muslim Canadians,” the NCC, according to a report from news outlet Anadolu Ajansı. “This is the most important civil liberties battle in our lifetime.”
The legislation “has a number of deeply problematic provisions,” the group said via LinkedIn.
Harini Sivalingam, director of the equality program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said refusing religious accommodations could foster discrimination.
“It’s a draconian (bill) that will infringe fundamental rights and freedoms of teachers, staff and students in Quebec schools,” she said in a report from The Canadian Press (CP) posted in CTV News.
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