“If you want to kill your dog, you call it rabid,” says the proverb.
Ditto for Act 21.
We say the Legault government’s use of the defamation clause as a deterrent to renewal is a threat to democracy as it seeks to rally people against Quebec’s fearsome law on secularism.
“Today, we still use the rule to prevent citizens from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. But what about tomorrow? Will Quebec bypass Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms banning abortion?
Tonight we scare the world
Do you think I’m exaggerating? Am I buttery thick?
I invented ghosts to scare children?
No. This is the new argument that opponents of Act 21 bring to condemn its adoption.
That’s what the president of the FAE, which is challenging Bill 21 before the Supreme Court with the English Montreal School Board, says.
“Today, the escape clause is more easily used for all kinds of reasons. One day, anti-abortion lobbies may push a government to use this approach to limit women’s rights.
The historian is the same Pres Vincent Brusseau-Pouliot.
“However, the provision has been used by a Conservative government in Saskatchewan to prevent 16-year-olds from changing their name and surname without their parents’ consent. At the federal level, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, if elected, wants to use it to exclude the charters from reforming the criminal justice system.
Ugh…is it terrible to want to give harsh punishments to hardened criminals and let parents know that their minor child has started gender transitioning?
Rather, I believe it is full of common sense.
When a federal government falls head over heels in ideology, as the Trudeau government did, it would not be so foolish to let the provinces bring out a joker to protect themselves.
A castle
It’s all well and good to condemn the “misuse” of this clause, but what about the “misuse” of the Charter that prevents democratically elected governments from running the government they want?
Unelected federal judges cannot tell the people of Quebec how to govern themselves. We’re old enough to make our own decisions, thank you.
The Charter is said to be a bulwark against “populist” encroachments by some provincial governments, but the provision can also be seen as a bulwark protecting the provinces against some encroachments by the central government.
A wall protects in both directions.
Attack of the Left
“The Legault government used the contempt clause to protect Quebec’s individuality. But, whether he wanted it or not, he opened the door to an attack on the fundamental freedoms of Canadian rights,” wrote Michel C. Auger. Pres.
And what about the onslaught of the Trudeauist left imposing its will on the provinces?
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