April 15, 2019: Passover is a time to celebrate freedom

By Michael Regenstreif

During Passover we celebrate freedom. Specifically, we celebrate the release from the slavery endured by the Jewish people in ancient Egypt. The story is told in the Torah, in the book of Exodus.

Although our freedom from slavery came in biblical times, the Haggadah tells us that every generation must see themselves as moving from slavery to freedom.

Thousands of years later, we have a broader understanding of what freedom means and many view Passover as an opportunity to celebrate freedom in all of its forms and to pledge to strive toward a world where all are free.

Freedom of religion – which does not yet exist in many places around the world – is something we have come to take for granted in liberal democracies. Here in Canada, for example, freedom of religion is enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Freedom of religion is also enshrined in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. And yet, late last month, the government of Quebec introduced Bill 21, “An Act Respecting the Laicity (secularism) of the State.” The law, if passed, will restrict freedom for persons of authority in the public sector who wear certain items – including kippot, hijabs, turbans, Stars of David, crucifixes, etc. – as expressions of their religious beliefs.

Knowing the law flies in the face of guarantees under both the Canadian and Quebec charters, the Quebec government will invoke the “notwithstanding clause” to override the charters. I’ve always felt that including the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian charter was a huge mistake. The purpose of a charter of rights should be to protect fundamental rights from the whims of ephemeral politicians or the “base” they might cater to. The notwithstanding clause means that rights are only as protected as a government of the day thinks they should be.

One would have thought the issue of public sector workers having the right to wear such religious symbols in Canada was settled decades ago. In 1990, RCMP officers who practice the Sikh religion won the right to wear turbans – as their religion mandates them to do – while on duty. It was a precedent that has been respected in the public service in Canada for nearly 30 years.

Bill 21 is a solution to a problem that should never have been seen as a problem. A problem that rose to the surface in Quebec in 2007 when Hérouxville, a small village northeast of Shawinigan, passed a “code of conduct” for immigrants. The village, entirely white and francophone, had no immigrants – but its code sparked a long debate in Quebec about so-called “reasonable accommodation” that ultimately resulted in the introduction of the current bill.

The bill is in the initial stages of working its way through committee and second and third readings before it can be passed, and opposition to it is strong.

In a statement, Rabbi Reuben Poupko, Quebec co-chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said the Jewish community is “firmly opposed to any restriction of the freedom of religion of individuals in the name of secularism.

“Our community believes that the secularism of the state is an institutional duty and not a personal one. The commitment to secularism does not rest on the outward appearance of individuals. Any legislation that aims to restrict individual freedoms must pass the test of its constitutionality and in this regard, we are troubled by the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause to shield this legislation from a legal challenge.

“We are closely studying this Bill and are committed to participating constructively in the special consultations in order to voice our community’s concerns and its opposition.”

September 9, 2013: Proposed Quebec charter an assault on fundamental freedoms

By Michael Regenstreif

Ours is a multicultural society in which it is completely acceptable to wear such items of religious expression as the Jewish kippah, the Muslim hijab or the Sikh turban.

However, the right to wear such items by employees in the public and publicly funded sectors in Quebec will soon be curtailed, if the province’s Parti Québécois (PQ) minority government gets its way. The government has announced it will introduce a charter of Quebec values this fall, and some of the provisions of the charter, leaked late last month, indicate an outright rejection of the Canadian brand of multiculturalism that allows such freedom of religious expression.

This comes after several years of divisive debate over the issue of what constitutes reasonable accommodation for immigrants and religious minorities in Quebec. A debate that heated up in 2007 when Hérouxville – a village of 1,300 whose population is virtually 100 per cent Québécois de souche with no immigrants or Jews, Muslims or Sikhs – passed a code of conduct for immigrants and religious minorities.

This debate over reasonable accommodation is relatively new. Leaving aside the rancorous debates over linguistic policies, successive Quebec governments in the years since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s – including previous Parti Québécois governments – have never before made an issue of religious practice. In fact, on such issues as funding for faith-based private schools – such as the Jewish school system in Montreal – Quebec has been one of the most progressive of provinces.

I know several Jewish doctors in Montreal who wear kippahs in the course of their day-to-day lives, including while they work at hospitals like the Montreal General or the Montreal Children’s. But, soon, should this charter of Quebec values pass, it will be illegal for them to do so. It will be illegal for a Moslem woman to wear a hijab while teaching in a public school or for a Sikh police officer to wear his turban while on duty.

It’s been suggested that the charter may include a provision whereby a culturally specific public institution like the Jewish General Hospital could apply for an exemption from certain charter regulations, but it is unclear if that means all religious expression would be permitted there or, as a historically Jewish institution still largely supported by the generosity of the Jewish community, that kippahs would be OK, but not hijabs or turbans.

It’s also not clear that the proposed charter will pass. The PQ forms a minority government and the Liberals have indicated they will oppose it. That leaves the third party, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which holds the balance of power in the National Assembly, and which seems to favour a charter that doesn’t go quite as far as the PQ would.

MP Irwin Cotler, whose legal expertise is beyond reproach, has pointed out the proposed charter is an assault on fundamental freedoms guaranteed in both the Quebec and Canadian charters of rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and there has been widespread condemnation from many organizations, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and even from the government of Ontario.

But the PQ doesn’t care and is playing to the 65 per cent of Quebec francophones who, according to polling data, supports the proposals. The CAQ, too, is reading those same polls.

The federal government has recently been making much of its efforts to promote religious freedom around the world. Is it also ready to do so at home?