The board of the Montreal English School is seeking permission to appeal the Bill 21 decision to the Supreme Court

MONTREAL — Quebec's justice minister said he intends to defend the province's secularism law to the end after the English Montreal school board said it will ask the Supreme Court of Canada for permission to appeal a ruling upholding the law.

Simon Jolin-Barrett made the comments on Thursday when he sent the federal government a notice to “go about its business” on Bill 21, which would ban public sector workers such as judges and teachers from wearing religious symbols at work.

“We will always defend the secularity of the state, because in Quebec, state and religion are separate,” Jolin-Barret said in Quebec City. “And we will be very clear: we will never compromise on this subject.”

Quebec's Court of Appeal ruled Bill 21 constitutional in February, overturning a lower court ruling that exempted English school boards from applying some key elements of the law. The school board protested the 2019 law on the grounds that it violates minority language rights and gender equality provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The board initially secured exemptions from some of the law's provisions, including a ban on hiring teachers who wear religious symbols, in an April 2021 resolution. But the Quebec Supreme Court overturned that decision.

The federal government has announced it will join a challenge to the law in the Supreme Court.

“I'm calling on the federal government to do its job,” Jolin-Barrett said. “It's a Quebec issue, it's a matter decided in the National Assembly of Quebec.”

He said the federal government needs to show more respect for Quebecers and the provincial legislature when it comes to secularism or immigration — a topic that has brought Quebec and Ottawa head-to-head in recent months.

The English Montreal School Board said Wednesday its board of commissioners voted to ask the law firm for leave to appeal to Canada's highest court.

“We maintain our original position that Bill 21 is contrary to our values ​​and mission and the positions of all Quebecers as expressed in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms,” said board chair Joe Ortona. “Its adoption was contrary to our public purpose of promoting peaceful coexistence in a pluralistic Quebec.”

This Canadian Press report was first published on April 11, 2024.

Canadian Press