Civil liberties groups argued law discriminates against Muslim women who wear head coverings
The Quebec Court of Appeal has upheld the province's controversial secularism law in a ruling on challenges to the law's constitutionality released Thursday afternoon.
The heavily anticipated judgment is 290-pages long and quashes a previous exception, made by Superior Court Judge Marc-André Blanchard, that allowed English schools to employ teachers wearing religious symbols — such as a head covering — while on the job.
A panel of Appeal Court judges heard arguments from civil liberties groups challenging the law, as well as from the government, in November 2022.
Premier François Legault's government had appealed the Superior Court decision, rendered in April 2021, that upheld most of the law but made the exception for English schools.
His government had said the exception created an unfair distinction between francophone and anglophone schools.
In a summary of their decision Thursday, the Appeal Court justices, Manon Savard, Yves-Marie Morrissette et Marie-France Bich, said the law does not go against "the unwritten principles of the Constitution, nor the constitutional architecture, nor any pre-Confederation law or principle having constitutional value."
They said their judgment had nothing to do with "diverse opinions about [the law], whether politically, sociologically or morally."
"The Court, like the Superior Court before it, is in fact acting here as part of a process of monitoring the legality of the law (a process initiated by different groups of litigants) and it is not ruling on the wisdom of the law," the judges wrote.
The secularism law, which has been in place since June 2019, prevents a number of civil servants — including teachers and police officers — from wearing religious symbols while on the job.
The justices said that, in their opinion, Blanchard had erred in creating the exception for English schools. They said the law did not impede anglophone students from receiving their minority-language education.
"Rather, what is at issue here is a restriction on the recruitment of personnel, which however remains unrelated to any linguistic consideration," the judges wrote.
The judges did however maintain another exception created in Blanchard's judgment — that MNAs be exempt from the law — saying elected officials should have the right to wear religious symbols, unlike other representatives of the state in positions of authority such as judges, Crown prosecutors, prison guards, police officers, school principals and teachers.
Several groups have challenged the law's constitutionality. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims were among those arguing Bill 21 discriminates on the basis of religion.
Arguments in the Court of Appeal case were heard by a panel of judges a year and a half ago. At the time, the panel of judges hinted that the case hinged on whether the bill disproportionately discriminates against Muslim women who wear the hijab.
A key argument of groups opposed to the law is that it discriminates on the basis of gender by disproportionately targeting Muslim women. Provincial laws that can be shown to be discriminatory on the basis of gender cannot be shielded by the notwithstanding clause.
