(CBC) The stakes around Quebec’s secularism law have always been high, but somehow they’ve managed to become even higher in recent days.
The law (Bill 21) has already altered the career choices of dozens, maybe hundreds, of aspiring public school teachers, prosecutors and police officers by barring them from wearing religious symbols at work.
At the same time, it has become the focal point of a resurgent sense of Quebec nationalism, and played a significant role in the outcome of the recent federal election.
Now, as the law confronts the first of several legal challenges, its most ardent supporters have mounted a campaign that is testing the legitimacy of the judiciary itself.
