Feds would join challenge of Quebec’s secularism law at Supreme Court
The federal authorities will be a part of a authorized problem to Quebec’s spiritual symbols regulation if it reaches the nation’s highest court docket, Justice Minister David Lametti mentioned Wednesday.
“When it arrives on the Supreme Court docket of Canada, it’s by definition a nationwide problem, and we will probably be there,” Lametti advised reporters in Montreal.
Each the Quebec authorities and teams opposing the regulation have appealed an April 2021 Quebec Superior Court docket resolution that upheld many of the regulation, whereas placing down provisions that associated to English-language college boards and a ban on members of the provincial legislature sporting face coverings.
The case is presently earlier than the Quebec Court docket of Attraction.
The regulation, generally generally known as Invoice 21, bans public sector staff who’re deemed to be in positions of authority — together with academics, judges and cops — from sporting spiritual symbols on the job.
Quebec Premier François Legault mentioned the feedback from the Trudeau authorities’s justice minister make no sense, on condition that the Court docket of Attraction has not dominated on the case.
“It’s a flagrant lack of respect for Quebecers by Justin Trudeau, as a result of we all know that almost all of Quebecers agree with Invoice 21,” Legault advised reporters in Quebec Metropolis.
Trudeau responded to Legault’s criticism by saying he’s “a proud Quebecer” himself. He mentioned the federal authorities will probably be “a part of that dialogue” in what he known as an “nearly inevitable” Supreme Court docket case analyzing Invoice 21. “We will probably be there to defend the elemental rights of all Canadians which have been suspended by this regulation,” the prime minister advised reporters in Saskatoon.
Lametti mentioned it’s too early to say what arguments the federal authorities would make earlier than the Supreme Court docket, however he referred to considerations about Quebec’s use of the however clause to defend the regulation from authorized challenges.
Superior Court docket Justice Marc-André Blanchard discovered final yr that the regulation has merciless and dehumanizing penalties for many who put on spiritual symbols, however he dominated that many of the invoice should be allowed to face as a result of invocation of the however clause.
Lametti made the feedback as he addressed one other Quebec regulation — the province’s reform of its French language constitution — which additionally invokes the however clause. Lametti mentioned that whereas he personally opposes that regulation, Ottawa will resolve whether or not to take part in an eventual court docket problem based mostly on how it’s carried out.
“The however clause was meant to be the final phrase in what’s, in impact, a dialogue between the courts and legislatures,” he mentioned. “It wasn’t meant to be the primary phrase.” Use of the clause cuts off political and authorized debate, an “unintended damaging penalties in our political system,” he added.
