Two groups representing women say it fails to recognize the law’s discriminatory nature against women.
Article content
A group representing South Asian women says it plans to participate in an appeal of Bill 21 to the Supreme Court.
The South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC), based in Montreal, has until now not been involved in the court challenges to Quebec’s secularism law. However, the group said it is disappointed that the ruling of the appeal court on Thursday — which upheld the law — runs contrary to the guarantee to equal rights for all women enshrined in both the Quebec and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Article content
The group said Bill 21 — which bars public servants in positions of authority, including teachers, police officers and clerks, from wearing religious clothing on the job — has fed Islamophobia in Quebec. It went further to say the ruling goes against women’s equality rights, since it disproportionately affects Muslim women, because many wear hijabs.
“The ruling is a real disappointment for women’s equality advocates and minority rights advocates,” said SAWCC president Vrinda Narain. “It’s further disappointing that the Court of Appeal upheld (almost) every aspect of Bill 21.”
She added that the law appears to have emboldened those who spread anti-Muslim hate.
“Data has shown there has been a huge rise of hate crimes against Muslim women in Quebec, and certainly the ruling will have a chilling effect on young women living in the province,” she said, adding that many of the women she represents feel that they are unwelcome from entering nursing and teaching positions.
“It also doesn’t encourage them to participate in public life in Quebec; it keeps them away from it,” she said. “It causes unnecessary hostility and division within society and I think the job of a government is to use its power to bring people together. This kind of politics impacts not just the minority communities, but mainstream society is also affected by these divisive politics.”
Advertisement 3
Article content
She added that the ruling ignores the rights to equality guaranteed in Section 28 of the Canadian Charter, and the right of religious practice.
“This kind of legislation keeps women out of the mainstream rather than including them,” she said. “The bill is passed in the name of secularism and gender equality, but really it violates religious freedom and women’s equality rights across the board.”
She said her group, which has sat on the sidelines observing the legal challenges to date, will participate as an intervenor if and when the law is challenged at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Cee Strauss, who is a senior staff lawyer at Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) added that she too is disappointed with the ruling.
“It perpetuates and legitimizes discrimination against women, and in particular in this case Muslim women in Quebec,” Strauss said.
LEAF intervened in the Appeal Court case against Bill 21, and while the group has not decided if it would participate in an appeal to the Supreme Court, Strauss welcomes such a challenge.
“We hope it (goes to the Supreme Court) because the Quebec Court of Appeal decision is so disappointing,” she said. “This law restricts women’s right to bodily autonomy. It limits their ability to participate in society, to obtain services and to find work. So a feminist society really can’t tolerate laws that restrict women’s rights to make decisions about their bodies and beliefs.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
Her group argued that since the notwithstanding clause of the Charter cannot be used to override Section 28, which says the rights in the Charter “are guaranteed equally to male and female persons,” gender equality is still protected. The court didn’t agree, writing that Section 28 “has no standalone normative value and does not add a right distinct from those recognized by Sections 2 to 23 of the Charter.”
“They decided that the notwithstanding clause overrides the gender equality guarantee, so they didn’t even consider the discriminatory impacts of the bill properly, at least when it comes to gender equality,” Strauss said. “That’s what is so disappointing.”
She said the law will allow people to continue to spread hate against Muslims, and she worries that if it’s upheld, there will be further laws restricting the rights of women and Muslims in the province, and throughout the country.
Recommended from Editorial
Advertisement 5
Article content
Article content
