(Ottawa) The Quebec law on secularism continues to create a stir on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
On Tuesday, speaking at a press conference, New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh said “now is the time to speak out” on Bill 21, which has become the Law on the secularism of the State.
The fact that a teacher at an elementary school in Chelsea, Outaouais, has been assigned to other tasks because of her hijab inspires a hardening of position in the NDP leader.
Mr Singh, who himself wears the Sikh turban and could not teach under the law, said he would be prepared for the NDP to have intervenor status in conflicting court cases to Quebec law.
Until now, he had personally opposed this law, while recognizing Quebec’s right to legislate in matters of secularism.
“I was always against this law, it’s clear. I was always against this law. And I always said it was a discriminatory law, ”Mr. Singh reiterated in response to a reporter.
“But I think now is the time to make a clear statement, after what we saw at Chelsea. Yes [ce genre de causes] goes to the Supreme Court, […] the federal government […] will have to support Quebeckers who challenge this discriminatory law, ”he added.
In the Bloc Québécois, during this time, we are not fooling around.
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Yves-Francois Blanchet
“There are always lots of limits! », Launched Yves-François Blanchet, attacking Bob Rae, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, during a press conference on Tuesday morning.
The Bloc leader accuses Mr. Rae of a tweet posted on his Twitter account last weekend, where the ambassador qualifies the Quebec law on the secularism of the state as “deeply discriminatory”.
The Bloc Québécois wants to summon the ambassador to a parliamentary committee to explain its criticism of a law “democratically voted in a sovereign Parliament”.
There is little chance that the Bloc’s request will be successful. In order to summon Ambassador Rae, the Bloc would have to have the support of the New Democrats, the Conservatives or the Liberals who sit on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Blanchet predicts that the support will not come. And he believes that this refusal will be useful to him. “It will be understood, in Quebec, once again, that the federalist parties are unanimous against Quebec in matters of secularism,” he predicts.
And then, Mr. Blanchet read in the last release of Justin Trudeau on this issue a political calculation heralding the future. On Monday, Mr. Trudeau said that he does not want his government to intervene legally in the cause where Quebecers are contesting the law, so as not to make an Ottawa-Quebec quarrel and thus give François Legault a pretext to denounce a ” federal interference ”.
“He announces, for all practical purposes, that after the Quebec election, buckle up; federal resources will be deployed against Bill 21, ”he predicts.
The Quebec law on the secularism of the state has prohibited, since 2019, that people in a position of authority display religious symbols. This law, which has an acquired rights clause preventing the dismissal of people already in post, applies, among other things, to teachers.