Premier François Legault, left, and Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister of immigration, diversity and inclusiveness, are seen at the provincial legislature in late March 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
While few would deny secularism and religious neutrality are legitimate goals, they don’t justify Bill 21’s undue restriction of minority rights.
Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault on the campaign trail last September before the election that saw his party form a majority government.
The language of the neutral and secular state in Bill 21, like its precursors, presumes an invisible Christian default for the rules around public expressions of religiosity.
A French-speaking Canadian volunteer in Haiti part of the volunteer group EDV that helped recovery efforts after the earthquake in early June 2010.
Emma Taylor/Wikimedia
Christine Lutringer, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)
Scholars such as Alfred Sauvy, Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan and Frantz Fanon wrote in French, but their work greatly contributed to our understanding of democracy and social change in all contexts.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Québec Premier François Legault last month.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Canada’s recent decision to temporarily stop deporting Haitians and Venezuelans reaffirms the nation’s commitment to vulnerable people. However, Quebec’s recent policies don’t match with Canada’s.
Feb. 26 is World Spay Day, and spaying or neutering pets has many benefits.
Shutterstock
Neutering or spaying pets has additional benefits beyond population control; these benefits include extending their lifespan, improving their health and reducing risk of certain diseases.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks about the federal government’s newly imposed carbon tax at an event in Toronto in October 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Ontario’s premier is drawing faulty parallels between Franco-Ontarians and Anglo-Quebecers when it comes to the services available to them in each province.
The freedom to choose one’s clothes is key to sartorial experimentation. In the late 1920s, the Catholic Register wrote that these swimsuits were indecent.
State Library of Queensland
Powerful forces in Québec have long kept tabs on women’s dress codes, and therefore women’s bodies.
Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault on the campaign trail last September before the election that saw his party form a majority government.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
The Québec government’s push to ban the hijab is ‘sexularism’ and also basic nationalism – one that pits an ‘us’ against ‘them,’ where the ‘them’ represent multiple threats to the nation.
Quebec premier-designate François Legault gestures as he addresses a meeting of his new caucus on Oct. 3, 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Threats by two of Canada’s newest premiers to invoke the notwithstanding clause send a clear message to the federal Liberals: Ontario and Quebec do not play by the rules.
Demonstrators take part in a protest against Quebec’s proposed Values Charter in Montreal in September 2013.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
If Quebec’s new premier succeeds in passing ‘secularization’ legislation by wielding the notwithstanding clause, it will come at the cost of civil rights and the protective capacity of the Charter.
A woman cools down in a water fountain as she beats the heat in Montreal on Monday, July 2, 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Canada’s protectionist stance on dairy products has attracted the ire of Donald Trump. The U.S. president raises legitimate points about a system that costs Canadians at home and abroad.
Trump answers questions before departing the White House on his way to the G7 in Quebec.
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
A political scientist and economist explores the causes and consequences of Trump’s scattershot trade policy.
Battle of St. Eustache, December 14,1837: Rear view of St. Eustache church and scattering of insurgents during the 1837 rebellion in Saint-Eustache, a city in Québec. Ink and watercolor on paper.
Lord Charles Beauclerk/Library Archives of Canada
Why is a memorial to 29 Francophone men who were executed by the British government as well as to 58 men who were exiled to Australia in 1838 hidden away in a Montreal cemetery?
Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to reporters in Toronto on Sept. 10, 2018. He’s vowing to invoke the seldom used notwithstanding clause in his fight to slash the size of Toronto city council.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov.
The notwithstanding clause in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms has seldom been used. But it’s not totally gathering dust, and now Ontario Premier Doug Ford is threatening to wield it.
People attend a vigil for victims of the mosque shooting in Quebec City Jan. 30, 2017 in Montréal.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Jan. 29, 2017 must be remembered as the date of the worst mass murder to take place in a house of worship in Canadian history.
Warda Naili poses for a photograph at a park in Montreal in October. Naili, a convert to Islam, said she decided to cover her face out of a desire to practise her faith more authentically and to protect her modesty. Bill 62 forces women to remove their niqabs while using public services.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Bill 62 is likely to trigger even tenser controversies on Quebecois identity before next year’s provincial election. A historical perspective helps us understand the connection to Quebec sovereignty.
Métis Family and a Red River Cart, 1883.
(State Historical Society of North Dakota, A4365)
New census data sheds light on the country’s Indigenous population. In Eastern Canada, the rise in people claiming to be “Métis” is a controversial case of “settler self-indigenization.”
Professor, Research Chair in Language Rights, Faculty of Law | Professeur, Chaire de recherche Droits et enjeux linguistiques, Faculté de droit. 2021 Fellow, Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa