Canadian Civil Liberties Association urges engagement in widespread, meaningful consultations
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has called on Quebec’s legislature to pause and participate in widespread and meaningful consultations before moving forward with Bill 84 – An Act respecting national integration – which the CCLA says threatens social cohesion.
In a media release, the CCLA accepted that the preservation of Quebec’s rich and unique culture and language was an important goal. But the CCLA argued that Bill 84 would achieve an effect opposite to what the legislature intended.
The CCLA claimed that Bill 84 would:
Like other civil society organizations in Quebec, the CCLA expressed its concern that Bill 84 could potentially change the province’s unique interculturalism model and impact the protections provided by Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
In its media release, the CCLA said that it has made submissions about Bill 84 to the Committee on Citizens’ Relations of the Quebec National Assembly.
Harini Sivalingam, director of the CCLA’s equality program, made a statement in response to Bill 84 in February. She said that the reliance of Bill 84’s national integration policy on Bill 21, relating to the secularism of the state, was “deeply troubling.” She noted that Bill 21 is subject to a current challenge before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Sivalingam called Bill 84 “the wrong way to ensure newcomers are welcomed and included into the cultural fabric of Quebec society,” given that “[f]orced integration does not foster inclusion and risks alienating minority communities from Quebec society.”
Rather, Quebec’s government “should invest in robust supports for education and support for community cohesion that enables diverse cultural and religious communities to learn French, and be exposed to Quebec [culture],” Sivalingam said in the statement. “Newcomers to Quebec, religious minorities, and diverse communities should be included and not excluded.”
Sivalingam added that the CCLA had concerns about Bill 84’s “civil liberties implications on the rights and freedoms of newcomer communities” and wanted “members of the National Assembly to vote against laws that infringe rights and freedoms of newcomers and diverse communities in Quebec.”
The CCLA is an independent and non-profit human rights organization that aims to defend the rights, dignity, safety, and freedoms of everyone in Canada.
