Quebec premier defends limiting court challenges of upcoming secularism bill
MONTREAL — Premier Francois Legault invoked Quebecers’ values, language and distinctiveness Tuesday to justify shielding from court challenge upcoming legislation that will restrict the wearing of religious symbols .
Legault said the notwithstanding clause — Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — has been used “dozens of times by many Quebec premiers” with the purpose of protecting collective rights against individual freedoms.
It is “important,” he said, to use Section 33 “when we are talking about protecting our values, our language, protecting what makes us different here in Quebec.”