In the wake of recent remarks by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner1on the intrinsic fragility of democratic institutions and on the need to ensure confidence in our institutions, it seems relevant to me to recall that the purpose of State Secularism Act is precisely to solidify what constitutes the heart of the State.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
Since the advent of this law in June 2019, all citizens of Quebec now have a fundamental right to secular parliamentary, governmental and judicial institutions, as well as to secular public services.
It is as if the State were giving all citizens an assurance policy of its neutrality and its commitment, present and future, to respect the freedom of religion and conscience of all, without exception, to promote equality. of each one.
For this reason, the representatives who personify the authority of the State must embody this neutrality of public power, in fact and in appearance. In a word, to provide the societal oxygen necessary for pluralism, the State must transcend transcendence.
The secularism of the State implies the emancipation of the State from the grip of any third power – religious or ideological – and the aim of the general interest. This reinforces the integrity of future laws, as well as judicial independence and the neutrality of public services.
It suffices to look at what is happening in the United States, particularly with regard to the regression of the right to abortion, to see the importance of the additional protection provided by this quasi-constitutional law.
The State must allow all those who compose it, believers or non-believers, to recognize themselves in it, in order to build a common world, which can be inscribed in time. The State is not solely at the service of the individual, but of the common good and of the community.
In condition of modern manthe philosopher Hannah Arendt reiterates the importance of building a common world, which “transcends our life”, because it “is what welcomes us at our birth, what we leave behind when we die”.
As to the constitutional validity of the State Secularism Actit is surprising to say the least that Judge Marc-André Blanchard, of the Superior Court of Quebec, in 240 pages, never echoes the substance of the Law nor its transformative power to solidify the foundations of a democratic society.
He acts as if the Law contained only one article, that on the prohibition of the wearing of religious symbols by certain representatives of the State, and as if the Quebec Charter did not henceforth affirm in its preamble “the fundamental importance that Quebec society attaches to the secularism of the state.
In his recent interview, Chief Justice Wagner adds: “I have always said that the reason for prejudice is ignorance. So the more information we give people, the better they will be able to form an idea”. The same is true in my opinion for the secularism of the State against the current simplistic discourse that surrounds it.
Quebecers have made a whole journey of openness to otherness to adopt secularism as the founding principle of Quebec. I hope the courts will do so as well. Protecting institutions also means setting limits on the all-out exercise of individual rights.
The Constitution is alive and the societal dialogue continues between the judiciary and the political, since the judge is the fiduciary of the social contract. The function of judging requires the balancing of various societal interests, so that justice also participates in the realization of meaning through history to which every nation aspires.
“Judging is also a political act”, as Karine Tuil writes in her novel decision.