OTTAWA (CCN)—Federal political leaders are failing to protect Canadians’ rights by staying out of Quebec’s secularism law, says the former head of Canada’s religious freedom office.
Father Deacon Andrew Bennett said the leaders are abdicating their responsibility by buying into the viewpoint that Bill 21 is no one’s business except for Quebecers.
“Religious freedom is not just any freedom,” said Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, program director for religious freedom and faith community engagement at the faith-based think tank Cardus. “It is one of the fundamental freedoms.”
If politicians won’t speak out against the law during a federal election, he wonders when they will stand up for religious freedom.
Father Deacon Bennett was Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom in the Office of Religious Freedom established by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper in 2013. It was disbanded by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in 2016.
He said all the mainstream political parties in Canada have been afraid to speak out against the law because they fear hurting their electoral chances in Quebec where the law has widespread support.
“It is quite clear that what is happening is all about votes in Quebec,” Father Deacon Bennett told Canadian Catholic News.
“It is a matter of principle. If we can’t stand up in defence of religious freedom in this instance, then when will we stand up?”
The Quebec secularism law was addressed briefly in both the French and English language leaders debates Sept. 8 and 9 prior to the Sept. 20 federal election. For the most part, the leaders of the federal Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP have said Bill 21 is a Quebec issue and it’s up to Quebecers to determine its fate.
Trudeau is the only federal leader who has even raised the possibility that the federal government may have a role to play in challenging Bill 21 before the Supreme Court. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh have said both said it is a provincial matter and they would not challenge it as prime minister.
Montreal Archbishop Christian Lepine has spoken out against the law, saying, “How can one not see that the prohibition against wearing religious symbols is both an obstacle to upholding freedom of conscience and religion, as well as an attack on human dignity, since citizens would be required to conceal their religious identity in the name of a presumed neutrality?”
Father Deacon Bennett said Quebecers are Canadian citizens too and the federal government has a duty to defend religious freedom across the country despite Quebec Premier Francois Legault maintaining the rest of Canada has no business interfering.
He said the law is “an affront” to people who came to Canada after suffering religious persecution only to find it happening here.
“Religious freedom is essential for a functioning pluralistic society,” he said.
Bill 21 is currently being challenged in court in Quebec. In April, Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard ruled that the Quebec government has the power to require government employees not to wear religious symbols at work.
He conceded that Bill 21 does infringe on freedom of religion and expression, but because the Quebec government invoked the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause, most of Bill 21 is shielded from court challenge in the courts.
That ruling is being appealed by the Quebec government and other parties and most court observers expect some aspects of the law to eventually end up before the Supreme Court of Canada.
With a B.C. Catholic file