The Court of Appeal of Quebec decision on Bill 21 is a setback for gender equality

MARCH 1, 2024

The Court of Appeal of Quebec’s recent decision on Bill 21 significantly undermines the gender equality guarantee set out at section 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) and Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) are profoundly disappointed in this decision, as it perpetuates and legitimizes the systemic discrimination of women, and in particular Muslim women in Quebec.

In its decision, the Court decided that the notwithstanding clause overrides the gender equality guarantee set out in section 28 of the Charter. This means that even where a law has disproportionate discriminatory impacts on the rights of women, and in this case the rights of Muslim women, it can still remain in effect.

Bill 21 – or the Act respecting the laicity of the State – prohibits, among other things, people working in designated public institutions from wearing religious symbols in their workplace and from covering their face in the exercise of their functions. The law has had disproportionate discriminatory impacts on Muslim women in Quebec who wear a hijab or a niqab.

At the Court of Appeal, FFQ and LEAF argued that Bill 21 is unconstitutional because it infringes on the fundamental right of gender equality under section 28 of the Charter. As feminist organizations, we emphasized the intersectional approach that must be taken when interpreting section 28.

“The Court’s judgment did not account for intersectionality, nor did it even consider the discrimination caused by Bill 21,” says Sylvie St-Amand, President of the FFQ. “A law that restricts women’s rights to bodily autonomy and that limits their ability to participate in society, to obtain services, and to find work should never be tolerated.”

“Achieving gender equality requires courts to hold governments accountable when they violate women’s, non-binary, and trans people’s rights, which the Court did not do yesterday,” says Pam Hrick, Executive Director & General Counsel of LEAF. “The Court failed to breathe life into section 28, a powerful gender equality tool in our Constitution.”

The FFQ and LEAF remain in solidarity with women affected by Bill 21. The fight for women to choose how to live their lives, the struggle for justice and equality, and the fight against racism and Islamophobia continues.

LEAF and the FFQ are grateful to their counsel at Langlois Avocats, Geneviève Claveau, Sean Griffin, Lana Rackovic, Véronique Roy, and Fady Toban, for their pro bono representation before the Court of Appeal.

LEAF and the FFQ are also grateful to Natasha Bakht, Safa Ben Saad, Dolores Chew, Samaa  Elibyari, Nancy Labonté, Laïty Ndiaye, Nathalie Léger, Samira Laouni, Colleen Sheppard, and Sandra Wesley.  This intervention would not have been possible without their work, advice, and support.

-30-

Media Inquiries:
Me Véronique Roy, vroy@mccarthy.ca, 514-397-7101

Mathilde Lafortune, Communications Coordinator, FFQ, communication@ffq.qc.ca, 514-876-0166 poste 1502

About the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) 
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national not-for-profit that works to advance the equality rights of women, girls, trans, and non-binary people in Canada through litigation, law reform, and public legal education. Since 1985, LEAF has intervened in more than 130 cases that have helped shape the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To find out more, visit www.leaf.ca.

About the Fédération des Femmes du Québec (FFQ) 
The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) is an independent feminist organization that works, in solidarity and in alliance with other groups, to transform the social relations of sex in all human activities in order to promote the development of full autonomy of women and genuine recognition of all their contributions to society. To find out more, visit www.ffq.qc.ca.

Back to news list