(Montreal Gazette) Hearings into new legislation reinforcing secularism in schools Thursday rapidly took on the makings of an encore performance of the 2019 debate over Bill 21 on state secularism, with groups pro and con coming forward to push their views on how far the government should go.
But despite pitches by groups to either go further in the rules or water them down, the principles and core of the bill are not negotiable, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said as a parliamentary committee began hearings into Bill 94.
“We are open to improvements to the bill,” Drainville told the committee, which will hear from 24 groups over four days. “But we stay firm on the base principles it is based on. We will remain firm.”
