Human chain formed in Old Montreal to protest against Bill 21
At least 400 people gathered on the green space of Champ de Mars on Sunday afternoon and formed a human chain around Montreal’s courthouse in support of all those who would be affected by proposed legislation introduced by the Coalition Avenir Québec government that would prohibit the wearing of religious symbols for public servants in positions of authority, including teachers, judges, prosecutors and police officers.
They wore hijabs, turbans and kippahs. They wore baseball caps and sunhats and some wore bicycle helmets — a few adorned with feathers. Music played on a public address system and children played in the grass on the sunny afternoon as organizers of the event, a collective calling itself Coalition Inclusion Québec, and invited speakers spoke with reporters and then addressed the crowd.
“I’m very much opposed to the legislation,” said scholar and philosopher Charles Taylor, a co-author of Quebec’s 2008 report on reasonable accommodation. “It goes flat against rights enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Bill 21, as the legislation is known, would block court challenges by using the notwithstanding clause to override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Taylor asked: “Once you allow yourself to break the Charter, where will it stop?”
He said Islamophobia sweeping through the Western world is no doubt a contributing factor to the proposed legislation, but Bill 21 becoming law would just legitimize that. “Even proposing it is it is deeply irresponsible,” he said.
Montreal lawyer Gregory Bordan said Coalition Inclusion Québec believes the bill “to be highly discriminatory.
“It singles out religious groups to impose particular dress rules that are not imposed on others,” he said. “If you happen to be Jewish or Muslim or Sikh, you are prohibited from wearing a head covering.”