(CBC) After the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government tabled its secularism bill, Premier François Legault recorded a video address that intended to reassure people who felt the proposed legislation was going too far.
“I feel like saying ‘finally,'” the premier said in French with a joyful tone in the video released on March 31, 2019.
“It’s a debate that’s been going on for more than 10 years. It’s about time that a government put in place rules that are clear for everyone.”
The bill became law just a few months later. The CAQ sped up the legislative process by invoking closure, supposedly settling the debate on secularism in Quebec.
Five years later, the law known as Bill 21, which bars many public servants from wearing religious symbols while on the job, is facing a Supreme Court challenge, with opponents arguing it disproportionately affects religious minorities such as Muslim women.
