Calls grow from Liberal, Tory MPs for federal intervention in Quebec’s Bill 21

Federal parties have spent the past week reacting to the law which bans some public servants deemed to be in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols on the job.

The Liberal government and Opposition Conservatives are facing calls from within to mount a more direct challenge to Quebec’s controversial secularism law after a teacher was removed from the classroom for wearing a hijab.

Federal parties and their MPs have spent the past week reacting to the law, known as Bill 21, which bans some public servants deemed to be in positions of authority — such as teachers, judges and police officers — from wearing religious symbols on the job.

The law was passed in 2019, but received renewed attention outside Quebec last week after news broke that Fatemeh Anvari, a Grade 3 teacher, was told she could no longer teach in a classroom because she wore a hijab.

One of the federal politicians calling for a more forceful condemnation of the law was Conservative MP Mark Strahl, a representative from British Columbia.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has said that while he personally opposes the law, he believes it’s one that Quebecers alone must deal with and that a government led by him would not intervene in any court challenge to it.

But Strahl said he thinks “some issues transcend jurisdiction.”

The MP said he thinks Conservatives should re-examine their stance, which he said is unclear, and be prepared to challenge the law in court.

“We can’t let laws like that go unchallenged,” he told reporters before heading into the Tories’ national caucus meeting Wednesday, where he said the issue would be raised.