Distributed for University of British Columbia Press
The Challenges of a Secular Quebec
Bill 21 in Perspective
In 2019, the Quebec National Assembly passed Bill 21. It prohibits, among other things, certain state employees in positions of authority (including teachers, prison guards, police officers, and justices of the peace) from wearing religious symbols when providing public services. Many political commentators denounced the move as running counter to Canadian multiculturalism and human rights. Why did the government adopt this form of state secularism? And why did it garner public support? The Challenges of a Secular Quebec provides illuminating answers to these questions and explores why many Quebecers consider the law legitimate.
Contributors analyze the statute from different angles to provide a nuanced, respectful discussion of its intentions and principles. Given the province’s singular history in North America, the merits of the initiative to separate church and state must be considered within the Quebec context. The Challenges of a Secular Quebec calls for a legal interpretation of Bill 21 that is sensitive to this difference.
328 pages | 4 figures | 6 x 9 | © 2023
Law and Legal Studies: Law and Society
Political Science: Political and Social Theory
Religion: Religion and Society
Reviews
Table of Contents
Foreword / Roberto Perin
Introduction / Lucia Ferretti and François Rocher
Part 1: Things in Perspective
1 Putting Things in Perspective: The Many Varieties of Secularism / François Rocher
2 Beyond Defending Religious Symbols: The Desire to Put Quebec In Its Place / Lucia Ferretti
Part 2: Historical and Sociological Perspectives
3 Quebec: Under the Rule of its Two Cities / Marc Chevrier
4 The Difficult Search for a Quebec Model of Laicity / Micheline Labelle
5 Some Muslim Quebec Women and Men Are in Favour of Bill 21 / Yasmina Chouakri
Part 3: Legal Perspectives
6 The Laicity of the State: The Cornerstone of Individual Civil and Political Rights / Julie Latour
7 Arguments Relating to the Unconstitutionality of the Act Respecting the Laicity of the State: A Massive Rebuttal / Daniel Turp
8 Rights Guaranteed Equally to Both Sexes, the Notwithstanding Clause, and the Act Respecting the Laicity of the State: Overview and Contribution to the Debate from a Quebec Perspective / Guillaume Rousseau
9 Laicity in the Light of Institutional Dialogue in Canada / Patrick Taillon
Part 4: Educational Perspectives
10 The Medium is the Message: There’s No Point Cluttering Educational Communication / Charles-Étienne Gill
11 Thinking About Laicity Today with Ferdinand Buisson / Normand Baillargeon
12 Secularism and the Symbolic: The Quebec School as a Place of Immanent Knowledge / Paul Sabourin
Conclusion: The Fate Of Bill 21 in the Courts and in Public Opinion in English Canada / Lucia Ferretti and François Rocher
List of Contributors; Index