In March, Québec’s CAQ Premier, François Legault, passed an austerity budget, giving more handouts to the rich. At the same time the government attacked religious minorities in the name of state religious neutrality. Legault’s Bill 21 (PL21) bans public sector workers (police, judges, teachers) from wearing religious clothing or symbols. If passed, it will legalise workplace discrimination, ratcheting up the exclusion of minorities, especially Muslim women. Anticipating resistance, PL21 invokes the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The response from Québec’s traditional parties has been pathetic and unprincipled. The Liberals whinge about PL21’s wording and timeline but aren’t opposing it in principle, while the Parti Quebecois is busy trying to out-bigot the CAQ, saying PL21 isn’t tough enough in separating Church and State.
The leaders of Québec Solidaire (QS), the left-wing opposition party, initially supported banning of religious symbols. Alternative Socialiste (CWI in Québec), helped organize a grassroots debate and campaign inside QS to change its position. Success! 91% of delegates at QS’s National Conference voted to oppose any ban on religious symbols, in line with QS’s platform “The State should be secular, not individuals.”
The CAQ majority government is set to pass PL21 in June, hoping that resistance will fade over the summer before it starts enforcing the law in autumn. Only a militant mass campaign of civil disobedience in workplaces and streets can stop PL21. An injury to one is an injury to all. It will take a movement including unions, communities and QS to bring down the CAQ and the capitalist system on which it rests.
