PRESS RELEASE, 2016-11-07

For immediate release
Atheist Freethinkers at Hearings on Draft Bill 62

Montreal, 7^th November 2016 — Atheist Freethinkers (LPA-AFT), an association which promotes secularism and supports the rights of atheists, will appear tomorrow, Tuesday 8th November at 4:30 pm, before the Committee on Institutions at the National Assembly in Quebec City, for public hearings on Draft Bill 62, An Act to foster adherence to State religious neutrality and, in particular, to provide a framework for religious accommodation requests in certain bodies.

Three members of the Board of Directors of AFT, David Rand, Pierre Thibault and Pierre-André Renaud, will present the association’s brief, entitled, “A Law Very Distant from Secularism, Draft Bill 62 grants privileges to religions, thus defying religious neutrality.”

They will ask that the Minister of Justice, Mme Stéphanie Vallée, withdraw the draft bill, just as she did with Draft Bill 59, given that this current legislation does not even respect the religious neutrality which it claims to establish, and even less so the secularism which both AFT and the majority of Quebeckers ardently favour. On the contrary, this Draft Bill 62 clearly represents a step backwards, because the bill would leave the state wide open to religious interference by permitting religious symbols and religious accommodation in the public service, in the schools and in child-care centres.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Reach us by email
David Rand, bulletin at atheology.ca
Pierre Thibault, secretariat at atheology.ca
Pierre-André Renaud, par1138 at gmail.com

www.atheology.ca

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