In the News:
Renew Notwithstanding Clause to Protect Bill 21

Laïcité de l’État : Québec renouvelle l’utilisation de la clause dérogatoire (State Secularism: Quebec Renews its Use of the Notwithstanding Clause), Hugo Pilon-Larose and the Canadian Press, La Presse, 2024-02-08.

The Quebec minister responsible for secularism, Jean-François Roberge, has tabled legislation to renew, for five years, the notwithstanding clause which protects Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21 (Loi sur la laïcité de l’État). The minister insists that the law, adopted in 2019 during the first mandate of the CAQ government, has been important in preserving social harmony. The Parti québécois (PQ) supports the government and favours extending the law to apply to childcare centres.

This is very good news. Everything must be done to maintain Bill 21 and to extend it.

See also:

• Why We Support Bill 21
• Quebec Superior Court Decision about Bill 21
• What Was Left Unsaid at the Trial of Bill 21

Update, 2024-05-02: The legislation renewing use of the notwithstanding clause to protect the secularism law (Bill 21) from court challenge was adopted today by the National Assembly.