In a text published on June 16 in The Press1, the former columnist for this daily, André Pratte, condemns the idea of the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, to ensure that Quebec laws are now judged according to the Quebec charter rather than the Canadian one. This project would necessarily be based on greater use of the notwithstanding provision, which allows Quebec to partially protect itself from the invalidation of its laws under the federal charter. All of this would reduce our rights and freedoms to shreds.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
André Pratte advances several reasons for arriving at this conclusion, but he concedes an argument from the outset. The Canadian charter is part of the 1982 constitution and it was never signed by Quebec.
The former senator explains, however, that the charter itself is very popular in the polls, bordering on 90% support. That’s true, but a general question about the charter doesn’t mean much. Everyone will agree that in principle the protection of individual rights is a good thing. It’s like asking people if they are for or against apple pie. The level of support for it is certainly very high in the population.
If we did a poll tomorrow and asked people if they agree with the partial invalidation of Bill 21 last year under the Canadian charter, the answer would of course be very different. We could repeat the same exercise with the invalidations that affect Bill 101. In the same vein, we could ask Quebecers if they support the wearing of daggers in school, as the charter allows for Sikhs. Do they approve of the fact that under the Canadian charter alleged murderers have been released from prison without trial in recent years? Did our population support the charter when it allowed Adil Charkaoui, that hateful preacher, to derail the authorities’ plan to deport him to his native Morocco? The answer to all of these questions is of course a resounding no.
The former senator also says that removing the Canadian charter and replacing it with the Quebec one makes a difference. In this he is absolutely right. There are no language rights in the Quebec charter. The provisions on language in the Canadian charter serve to impose bilingualism on us, that is to say, to allow anglophones and immigrants as much as possible to live in English only in Quebec. The Canadian charter also creates a false symmetry between francophones outside Quebec and our anglophone community. As if English was threatened here in the same way as French in the rest of Canada!
The Canadian charter also contains an article dealing with multiculturalism. This principle has become the regime’s official ideology. The federal charter thus allows English Canada to impose it on us, to the detriment of Quebec secularism.
André Pratte asserts that the Canadian charter — which we will probably never be able to modify because the rest of the country is so determined not to reopen the constitution — in fact offers better protection than the Quebec charter, which is a simple law. In fact, he prefers the federal charter because it imposes Canadian bilingualism and multiculturalism on us, in our exclusive areas of jurisdiction.
Ever since Pierre Trudeau shoved the 1982 constitution down our throats, every time Quebec defends its autonomy, every time it wants to protect French or defend secularism, the accusation is always the same. Bad Quebecers are trampling on the immanent and sacred rights of our beautiful Canadian charter. This is exactly what André Pratte does, who once again engages in unbearable rights blackmail.