{"id":398089,"date":"2025-11-23T01:18:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398089\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T01:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:18:19","slug":"why-quebecs-proposed-constitution-has-legal-experts-civil-rights-groups-sounding-the-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398089\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Quebec\u2019s proposed constitution has legal experts, civil rights groups sounding the alarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault took many by surprise when, last month, his government introduced a proposed constitution<\/a> for the province without consulting the population first.<\/p>\n

The constitution, he said, would protect the common values of the province, including the French language, secularism, the right to an abortion and equality between men and women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the weeks since, the legislation has been the subject of growing consternation among legal experts and civil liberties groups, who warn it would centralize power, weaken judicial oversight and infringe on individual freedoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a government that wants to enshrine the so-called Quebec values at the expense of rights and freedom of all Quebecers, but especially the minorities,\u201d said Laurence Gu\u00e9nette, a co-ordinator with the Ligue des droits et libert\u00e9s, a Quebec human rights group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word \u2018constitution\u2019 itself is very appealing to many people in Quebec, but in reality the bill just weakens the Quebec Charter of Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limits on legal challenges<\/p>\n

The legislation \u2014 Bill 1 <\/a>\u2014 includes more than just the draft constitution. It modifies more than a dozen laws, including the Quebec Charter, to better balance the \u201ccollective rights of the Quebec nation\u201d with individual rights, according to the bill\u2019s preamble.<\/p>\n

It also seeks to defend Quebec’s use of the notwithstanding clause “without any requirement to contextualize or justify the provision.” <\/p>\n

And it would prohibit publicly funded organizations from using those funds to pay for court challenges of laws that protect “the fundamental characteristics of Quebec.”<\/p>\n

The English Montreal School Board, which receives public funds, challenged the province\u2019s secularism law, known as Bill 21, which bans public employees in positions of authority, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols. That challenge has made its way to the Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of TALQ, an anglophone rights group, said the legislation would hurt the ability of English-language institutions to protect themselves.<\/p>\n

“The core constitutional principles, including the rule of law, responsible government and democratic governance \u2014 that must be maintained, and hopefully strengthened, not weakened with a bill like this,\u201d Martin-Laforge said.<\/p>\n

Consultation as ‘window dressing’<\/p>\n

Faced with criticism over the legislation, the Quebec government committed to a round of consultations, but legal experts say that won\u2019t be sufficient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be very open and public and inclusive,\u201d said Karine Millaire, a professor of constitutional law at l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re talking about a constitution, not something that we should talk about in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

The province has given interested parties until Dec. 3 to submit feedback, and then they will hold hearings with selected parties.<\/p>\n

WATCH | The Legault government’s shot at an enduring legacy:<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

A Quebec constitution: the Legault government\u2019s shot at an enduring legacy<\/p>\n

Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault is hoping to woo voters and enshrine some of his government\u2019s legislative achievements by drafting a constitution. His justice minister has tabled Bill 1 of the new legislative session at the National Assembly, but opposition parties are slamming the CAQ government for not properly consulting Quebecers on such a significant proposal. <\/p>\n

Millaire was among a group of 28 law professors, political scientists and other academics who wrote an op-ed in Le Devoir questioning the legitimacy of the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She expressed reluctance to participate because she doesn\u2019t want to lend credence to a process she feels falls far short.<\/p>\n

“Many groups and many experts are really concerned that at this stage, we could just be instrumentalized,” she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t want to say at this stage that it’s possible to legitimize the process. It’s too late.”<\/p>\n

St\u00e9phane Beaulac, another constitutional law professor, said the consultations appear to be a \u201cwindow-dressing type of process.”<\/p>\n

Drafting a constitution should be a long process, which involves wide-ranging consultations to ensure the documents reflect society as a whole, Gu\u00e9nette said.<\/p>\n

In fact, she pointed out, Quebec\u2019s process runs contrary to the guidelines laid out by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has a lengthy document<\/a> detailing how a constitution should be drafted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bar association warns of ‘chilling effect’<\/p>\n

The Quebec Bar Association, which represents lawyers in the province, also took the unusual step of denouncing the legislation in a statement<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

R\u00e9mi Bourget, the organization\u2019s vice-president, said the section of the bill regarding limiting legal challenges amounts to an \u201cact of intimidation\u201d and threatens to erode the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is meant to have a chilling effect for any organization which could be called to fight for their members\u2019 rights or the public\u2019s rights, and this should not be part of the constitution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In its statement, the bar condemned two other recent bills, one that would give the government power to track doctors\u2019 work <\/a>and another that attempts to limit unions\u2019 funding<\/a> for legal challenges over the constitutionality or validity of a law.<\/p>\n

Together, he said, these three pieces of legislation can be seen as an attempt by the government to limit \u201ccitizens\u2019 ability to assert their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATCH | Bar expresses concerns over 3 Quebec bills:<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Quebec bar association condemns recent CAQ government laws in rare political move<\/p>\n

The Barreau du Qu\u00e9bec rarely gets involved in politics, but it\u2019s publicly calling elements of three recent provincial government bills \u201cconcerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Legault has said the constitution aims to assert Quebec\u2019s \u201cdistinct national character.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When we look at our history, our survival as a nation was improbable, but we are still here,” he said when tabling the bill. Among Canadian provinces, only British Columbia has its own standalone Constitution Act. <\/p>\n

For Quebec \u2014 which never formally signed the federal Constitution Act of 1982 \u2014 the idea of adopting a provincial constitution has long been intertwined with its nationalist aspirations. <\/p>\n

Opposition parties have welcomed the idea, but say it amounts to a political document as Legault’s Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec party lags in the polls ahead of next fall\u2019s provincial election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a project that should seek to unite, not divide. That means we shouldn\u2019t have a draft written on a piece of paper and then brought before the National Assembly to be part of a political debate where it will become polarized,\u201d Pablo Rodriguez, the leader of the Quebec Liberals, said after the bill was tabled.<\/p>\n

In Ottawa, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser said the government \u201ccontinues to carefully analyze the proposed draft constitution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a complex document that deserves a thorough study,\u201d Lola Dandybaeva said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis important debate belongs, above all, to Quebecers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault took many by surprise when, last month, his government introduced a proposed constitution for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":398090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-398089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115596382443035404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}