General Consultation and Public Hearings on Bill 60 Federation CJA

General consultation and public hearings on Bill 60 Charter affirming the values of State secularism and religious neutrality and of equality between women and men, and providing a framework for accommodation requests Submitted by Federation CJA and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs December 20, 2013 2 Table of Contents 1. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 3 2. History and profile of the Jewish community in Quebec ........................................... 6 3. The Quebec Jewish community rejects the Charter of Quebec Values .................... 10 Banning of religious symbols ....................................................................................... 11 Reasonable accommodation .......................................................................................... 14 A bad solution to a nonexistent problem ...................................................................... 15 4. Analyses of Bill 60 .................................................................................................... 18 a) Secularism undefined ................................................................................................ 18 b) The fundamental freedom of religion violated ......................................................... 20 c) The regulation of reasonable accommodation infringing on fundamental freedoms 22 d) An attack on the separation of powers ........................................................................ 25 e) The scope of the bill – extending the reach of the State ........................................... 26 f) Creation of legal uncertainty - affecting labour law ................................................. 28 g) Freedom of religion violated in the educational childcare services sector ............... 30 h) Affecting the right of religious minorities to be represented at the National Assembly ....................................................................................................................... 31 i) Hierarchy of rights ..................................................................................................... 32 5. Conclusion: The Quebec that we envision ................................................................ 36 3 1. Summary Quebec Jews have long been active participants in shaping the daily life and the grand narrative of Quebec’s history. For two and a half centuries, they have fulfilled their duties as citizens by playing an active role in developing every aspect of Quebec society. In this respect, Quebec Jews have the legitimate expectation that the sustainability of their institutions, the value of their historic heritage, and their acquired rights be recognized and respected. Bill 60, or the "Quebec Charter of Values," is a bad solution to a nonexistent issue. It is a solution that violates basic freedoms of conscience and religion, as protected by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, the bill threatens to betray the Quebec tradition of pluralism, exclude minority communities from fully participating in public life, and compromise the Jewish community's acquired rights and its future. There have been no empirical studies to demonstrate a decline in religious neutrality or the secular nature of Quebec society. Nonetheless, the government is proposing to impose drastic limitations on freedoms of conscience and religion by prohibiting religious symbols to be worn within the public and parapublic sectors, and potentially in the private sector. Rather than reaffirming the secularism established since the Quiet Revolution, Bill 60 proposes a model that is in fact the antithesis of secularism. It confers an exceptional legal status to the traditional faith of the majority, referred to as patrimonial (pertaining to heritage), while marginalizing public expression of minority faiths. The bill thus completely undermines the principle of religious neutrality of the State, which exists precisely in order to guarantee all of its citizens the freedoms of conscience and religion, as well as the right to equality. In addition, the bill's vague character, shrouded in legal uncertainty, confers excessive discretionary powers upon civil servants. 4 It is also difficult to see how Jewish community-based institutions, such as the Jewish General Hospital, would be able to implement the provisions stipulated in the bill. The impact of Bill 60 on our community would be devastating. The social climate that has prevailed since the beginning of this societal debate has the potential to damage the continuity of the Jewish community. Already weakened by the exodus of the 1970’s, our aging community devotes all its energy towards programs to keep our youth in Quebec, and to attract others, notably from France. Now, the debate on the “Charter of Quebec Values” has discouraged our young people, who are starting to question their futures in Quebec. Meanwhile numerous French Jewish families tell us that they are considering immigrating to other regions of North America instead. We are in favour of a pluralistic Quebec that respects the diversity of its population and where the majority culture nonetheless forms the basic core of a common culture. We also believe that Quebec has been outstandingly successful in finding the right balance between the cultural references of the majority and a pluralism that gives minorities the ability to express their distinctive characteristics while respecting French-Canadian history and tradition. We believe that the policy of cultural convergence adopted in 1981 under the René Lévesque government should continue to guide Quebec integration policies. Now, the "Quebec Charter of Values" threatens to disrupt this precious balance achieved by the Quiet Revolution by imposing an artificially homogeneous framework on Quebec national identity to the detriment of the dynamic character of Quebec society. We deplore that the spirit of this Bill results from a will to reassert a notion of Quebec identity based exclusively on ethno-cultural characteristics of the majority. The "Quebec Charter of Values" represents a radical break from Quebec's model of integration. In addition, we support a model of secularism that is unique to Quebec, that is, a flexible secularism in line with Quebec's quiet emancipation from the authority of the Church, 5 rather than importing France's uncompromising model, which resulted from its difficult, and at times violent separation of State and Church. The Quebec social model, which is inclusive and tolerant, respectful of the majority's history and its population, has allowed Quebec to avoid the tensions and social fragmentation that plague other Western societies. By introducing to Quebec a secular model that is foreign to our history, we risk importing with it social conflicts that have, until now, been nonexistent in Quebec. Half a century after the Quiet Revolution, our Quebec is absolutely mature and intelligent enough to deal with the challenges of immigration without eliminating the spirit of generosity and openness that characterize it. In order to continue the tradition of balancing the collective rights of the majority, pluralism and the respect for minority rights, it is imperative that our elected representatives reject Bill 60. 6 2. History and profile of the Jewish community in Quebec The Jewish community – the first non-Christian group to come to Quebec – has been an integral part of Quebec society for 253 years. Over these two and a half centuries, Jews have played a crucial role in contributing to Quebec's social, intellectual, political, cultural, artistic, economic, scientific and medical development. If participation in public life is any gauge of integration, the Quebec Jewish Community’s position as a historically integrated community is indisputable. Very early on, the Jewish community became actively involved in the public sphere. In 1807 and 1808, the residents of Three Rivers elected Ézekiel Hart twice as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, although he could never sit in the parliament because he was Jewish. Later on, under the leadership of Patriote Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada adopted an act granting full democratic rights to Quebec Jews in 1832. Quebec thereby became the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to grant Jews political emancipation (Great Britain followed only in 1858.) While the Jewish community was comprised of less than 500 individuals until 1871, Jews made a disproportionate contribution to the development and modernization of Quebec in the 19th century. In 1832, Moses Judah Hays established Montreal’s first aqueduct system. He was appointed to the bench in 1835, became police chief in 1845 and built the city’s first theatre in 1848. In 1861, Jesse Joseph implemented the city’s first public transportation service. Joseph also became President of the Montreal Gas Company, the forerunner to Hydro-Québec. In 1876, Sigismond Mohr established Quebec City’s first telephone network, harnessed the Chutes Montmorency in 1885 and lit up the streets of the provincial capital. To address its social needs, the community created a social services agency in 1863, known today as Agence Ometz. It was the first social services agency in all of Quebec 7 and Canada and would serve, a century later, as a

Load more