Charter Of Quebec Values
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The ''Charter of Quebec Value''s ( or ) was Bill 60 in the
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province of
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, introduced by the governing
Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...
in 2013 under Premier
Pauline Marois Pauline Marois (; born March 29, 1949) is a retired Canadian politician, who served as the 30th premier of Quebec from 2012 to 2014. Marois had been a Member of the National Assembly (Quebec), member of the National Assembly in various ridings ...
, trying to legislate the Quebec controversy on
reasonable accommodation A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, or em ...
. The PQ cabinet member forwarding the bill was Bernard Drainville, Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions and Active Citizenship. Premier Marois also threatened invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution of Canada to pass the Charter in 2013. There was much controversy in Quebec and elsewhere about the charter, especially its proposed prohibition of
public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...
employees from wearing or displaying conspicuous religious symbols. The proposal would have included the following provisions: * Amend the '' Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms'' * Establish a duty of neutrality and reserve for all state personnel (including state-funded education and health care workers). * Limit the wearing of conspicuous
religious symbol A religious symbol is an iconic representation intended to represent a specific religion, or a specific concept within a given religion. Religious symbols have been used in the military in many countries, such as the United States military chap ...
s for said personnel. * Make it mandatory to have one's face uncovered when providing or receiving a state service. * Establish an implementation policy for state organizations. The PQ had a minority government; Marois called an early election to obtain a greater vote of confidence. The political objective of the PQ was to foster an alliance between seemingly opposing groups, the traditionalists and the progressives, in order to facilitate the emergence of a new type of majority. The bill died as of the 2014 election, which was won by the
Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...
. The Charter of Quebec Values was argued to be a contributing factor in the PQ’s loss of power (although the bill was polled with higher public opinion support than the governing party itself). The Liberals were opposed to the legislation, but party leader Philippe Couillard pledged during the campaign to put forward a less strict set of measures on the reasonable accommodation issue.


Chronology

The proposal was first announced on May 22, 2013. The Charter was officially proposed on September 10, 2013. The bill died on the order paper as of March 5, 2014. During the subsequent election campaign Premier Pauline Marois promised that if elected she would apply the notwithstanding clause to shield the Charter from legal challenges.


Symbols

The most controversial of all provisions seems to be about the restriction of the
public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...
employees from wearing or displaying conspicuous religious symbols. According to the bill, relatively discreet items such as a finger ring,
earring Earrings are jewelry that can be worn on one's ears. Earrings are commonly worn in a piercing in the earlobe or another external part of the ear, or by #Clip-on and other non-pierced earrings, some other means, such as stickers or clip-ons. Earr ...
, or small
pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ...
s bearing a religious symbol will be allowed, while more obvious items such as a
kippah A (plural: ''kippot''), , or is a brimless Jewish cap, skullcap, usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish men to fulfill the customary requirement that the Head covering, head be covered. It is the most common type of head-coverin ...
,
turban A turban (from Persian language, Persian دولبند‌, ''dolband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Commun ...
,
hijab Hijab (, ) refers to head coverings worn by Women in Islam, Muslim women. Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or Snood (headgear), snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain Christian head covering, headcoverings worn by some Christian w ...
, niqāb, and larger crosses and religious pendants would be prohibited. Elected politicians would be exempt and temporary opt-out provisions have been proposed for
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and
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. Furthermore, certain items and customs with an ostensibly religious nature, such as the large
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on display in the
Quebec National Assembly The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Quebec (representing the King of Canada) and the Nat ...
, and observing
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
are exempt on the rationale of them reflecting the province's cultural heritage. This has led to the widespread belief that this measure is motivated by an act of ethnocentric
hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. The word "hypocrisy" entered the English language ''c.'' 1200 with the meaning "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness". Today, "hypocrisy" ofte ...
.


Reactions

The charter was popular in the beginning, but constant attacks reduced the support occasionally to 50% of the population.


Quebec political parties

In Quebec itself, the provincial
Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...
, the
Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...
, enjoying an increase in support since the announcement of this Charter, declared that it would oppose passing this bill to the point of triggering an election over the issue.
Coalition Avenir Québec The Coalition Avenir Québec (, , CAQ) is a Quebec nationalism, Quebec nationalist, Autonomism in Quebec, autonomist and conservatism, conservative
leader
François Legault François Legault (; born May 26, 1957) is a Canadian politician serving as the 32nd premier of Quebec since 2018. A founding member of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), he has led the party since it began in 2011. Legault sits as a Nationa ...
proposed a compromise with a more limited ban with health care workers and daycare workers exempted. Former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau did not feel the end of the bill justified its means.


Federal political parties

The reaction to this bill has been divisive with most of the major Federal political parties denouncing this proposal. For instance,
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...
of the
Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...
described this measure as a cynical wedge issue designed to foment conflict with the Federal Government of Canada to promote Quebec separatism when it is challenged in the courts as
unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...
while Thomas Mulcair of the
New Democratic Party of Canada The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...
declared it unacceptable, deriding it while speaking to the press as "state-sponsored
discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
". Prime Minister
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...
noted that the bill will likely not become law, but will take whatever action necessary in the event that it does. Member of Parliament Maria Mourani was expelled from the
Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (, , BQ) is a centre-left politics, centre-left and list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism, Quebecois nationalism, social democracy, and the promotion o ...
for complaining that the proposed Charter is an act of political
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over
human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
.


Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse

Quebec's human rights commission, the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse condemned the proposed charter as a "radical" infringement on fundamental rights.


Other groups

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association submitted a brief to the Quebec National Assembly’s Committee on Institutions. They described Bill 60 as a profoundly disturbing law that would violate fundamental freedoms and cannot 'be justified in a free and democratic society' as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires. CCLA posits that the Bill violates freedom of religion, freedom of expression, the right to equality, and the right to be free from discrimination. CCLA mentions inconsistencies in the law that would be disproportionate upon members of minority faith traditions. They urged the Quebec government to abandon the bill. The National Council of Canadian Muslims also submitted a brief to the Quebec National Assembly on Bill 60. They described the bill as discriminatory and that it would violate religious freedoms of the Muslim community. The NCCM urged the opposition parties in the Quebec National Assembly to defeat Bill 60. The president of the '' Mouvement laïque québécois'', Lucie Jobin, wrote that she "is delighted that secularism is registered on it - it is a public value of social cohesion - but we express many reservations. It would be a two-speed secularism". On November 13, Jewish General Hospital executive director Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg called the proposed charter "flawed and contrary to Quebec's spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance" and said that the hospital would ignore it if passed, in a written statement endorsed by the hospital’s board of directors. On January 12, 2014, an independent documentary, ''Québec 60: un documentaire'', was published on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
to counter the Quebec Charter of Values. The documentary focuses on women who wear the veil and who live in the province of Quebec. It also tackles the Charter's effects on other religious minorities: the Sikh and the Jewish communities. On its first week of release, the online documentary gathered more than 18,000 views. On February 15, 2014 an independent documentary, ''La charte des distractions'', ( English: the Charter of Distractions) was published by a collective of independent media groups which consisted of G.A.P.P.A., Les Alter Citoyens, and 99%Media as a critical view and analysis of the Quebec Charter of Values and how it represented a distraction from the real social, economic, and environmental issues that have been further exacerbated by the successive austerity measures imposed by the Parti Québécois and the Parti libéral du Québec before it. The documentary also drew parallels with what had happened a year earlier during the 2012 Quebec Maple spring protests. The documentary also drew parallels with the Idle No More movement and the treatment of
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
peoples. The documentary was released openly to the public on YouTube and received significant media attention.


Public reaction

Some half of Quebeckers supported the Charter at its peak, according to polls. It was, however, not a major electoral motivation issue. The public reaction has included at least one public incident where a Quebec woman of Algerian origin wearing an Islamic veil was accosted in Laurier Québec shopping centre in
Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
by a woman citing the charter who demanded they change their religion and remove the headscarf. Another incident occurred when a white male harassed a hijab-wearing woman on a bus in Montreal. In response, there have been at least two public protest marches in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
of people of various faiths denouncing the Charter. There have also been at least two marches in support of the charter, including the "Janettes" movement of women for
secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...
.


See also

* ''
Act respecting the laicity of the State The ''Act respecting the laicity of the State'' (), introduced and commonly referred to as Bill 21 or Law 21, is a statute passed by the National Assembly of Quebec in 2019 which asserts that Quebec is a Secular state, lay state (secular state). ...
'' *
Canadian values Canadian values are the perceived commonly shared ethical and human values of Canadians.Douglas Baer, Edward Grabb, and William Johnston, "National character, regional culture, and the values of Canadians and Americans." ''Canadian Review of Soci ...
*
Hérouxville Hérouxville (; formerly called Saint-Timothée ) is a parish municipality in the Mékinac Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of Mauricie, in the province of Quebec, Canada. Its watershed is mainly part of the Batiscanie ...


References


Further reading

* Iacovino, Raffaele. "Contextualizing the Quebec charter of values: belonging without citizenship in Quebec." ''Canadian Ethnic Studies'' 47#1 (2015): 41-60. * Lampron, Louis-Philippe. "The Quebec Charter of Values." in Ferran Requejo & Klaus-Jürgen Nagel, eds. ''Politics of Religion and Nationalism: Federalism, Consociationalism and Secession'' (2015): 137-50. * Tessier, Charles, and Éric Montigny. "Untangling myths and facts: Who supported the Québec Charter of Values?" ''French Politics'' 14#2 (2016): 272-285. * Ugland, Trygve. "The Quebec Charter of Values: A Solution in Search of Problems." ''Journal of Eastern Townships Studies'' 42 (2014): 11
online
online] * Pilote, Alain, Pierre-André Fournier, and Louis Évan, jt. auth. ''Quelques réflexions sur la "Charte de la laïcité ... du gouvernement de Pauline Marois''. Rougemont, Qué.: Vers demain, 2014. ''N.B''.: Compiled from articles originally having appeared in "Journal Vers demain", Jan.-Feb. 2014.


External links

*
English text of the bill at the National Assembly's website
* {{usurped,
La charte des distractions
} 2013 in Quebec Clothing in politics Dress codes (legal) Political controversies in Canada Politics of Quebec Quebec provincial legislation Religious controversies in Canada Religion in Quebec 2013 controversies Racism in Quebec