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Hearings in one of the most anticipated cases in years before the Supreme Court of Canada are scheduled to begin March 23.
The country’s top court has set aside five days for arguments over Quebec’s 2019 secularism law, which prohibits public sector workers considered in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols at work.
The law, known as Bill 21, is protected from many constitutional challenges because it preemptively invokes a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allows a federal or provincial legislature to temporarily override certain rights.
One of the many interveners in the case is the government of Canada, which wants the court to set limits on how provincial governments can override basic rights using what is commonly known as the Charter’s notwithstanding clause.
Critics of Bill 21 say it violates the right to freedom of expression and religion, but the Quebec government says the law is essential to preserving Quebec values of secularism and equality between men and women.
The outcome of the Supreme Court hearings will likely set important precedents across the country, particularly regarding minority rights and governments’ use of the notwithstanding clause.
