Justin Trudeau says he will stay out of the fight over Quebec’s bill 21, for now

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will not immediately intervene in Quebec’s debate on Bill 21 because he does not want the Quebec government to politically weaponize any federal intervention.

At a press conference in Ottawa, Trudeau offered the first clear explanation as to why his liberal government has taken a hands-off approach to a provincial law that prohibits many public sector workers, such as teachers, from wearing religious clothing or symbols such as hijabs, kippas or crucifixes.

In the wake of an uproar in Chelsea, Quebec, near Ottawa, over the removal of an elementary school teacher, Fatemeh Anvari, some liberal MPs and even their own UN ambassador, Bob Rae, have been more outspoken than the prime minister when criticize what is known as secularism. law.

On Monday, Trudeau said he does not want to give Prime Minister François Legault a political wedge to use against those fighting to stop the bill.

“I deeply disagree with the law,” and in the case of a fired teacher in Chelsea, Quebec who was removed from the classroom for wearing a hijab, Trudeau said that “obviously there are many people across the country, but also many Quebecers who are asking themselves difficult questions that should be asked, is this bill justified or not? ”.

But Trudeau said that as a now-ongoing judicial challenge makes its way through the courts, it is “important … not to make the excuse of a fight between Ottawa and Quebec … and to make sure it is the Quebecers themselves. who deeply disagree with the fact that someone may lose their job because of their religion, and not to give the Quebec government an excuse that this is federal interference, but to say no, Quebecers disagree with this principle, that a young woman should be able to lose her job, a teacher who was doing her job very well simply because of her religion. “

The law, known as Bill 21, was passed by the Quebec legislature in June 2019, but is being challenged in court by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as a violation of the guarantees of freedom of religion and freedom of the statutes of Quebec and Canada. expression.

They won a partial victory earlier this year when a Quebec superior court judge exempted English schools from their provisions, a decision the Quebec government is appealing.

But the Legault government has invoked the “nevertheless” clause, a constitutional escape route, to exclude Bill 21 from being subject to the Bill of Rights for five years.

So far, Trudeau has largely left the battle in the hands of Quebecers, saying his government can only intervene when, as expected, the case reaches the Supreme Court of Canada.

But in answering questions about why his caucuses are more vocal than he is, Trudeau became defensive.

“I have always said very clearly that I deeply disagree with Bill 21. I do not find that in a free and open society someone should lose their job because of their religion. This is no longer a theoretical problem. “

He pointed out to Anvari “who lost his job due to his religion.”

Trudeau said: “Quebecers are great defenders of freedom of expression, gender equality, freedom of conscience” and they are “very concerned that in a society that claims to be free and open, someone may lose their job. because of their religion. “

But he said his government has not ruled out the “possibility of intervening as a federal government at some point.”

Rae, Trudeau’s envoy to the UN and former interim Liberal leader, tweeted Sunday “There is a deep and discriminatory meaning to this law. It clearly goes against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ”.