Secular charter creates division and abolishes rights: Opposition

The Quebec Government has tabled its secular charter, and with it provoked another wave of debate, this time from multiple levels of government. 

According to CBC, heated debate began between Premier Pauline Marois and Liberal Opposition leader Jean-Marc Fournier in the national assembly once the bill was tabled.

Fournier says the PQ government is creating an unfounded division in Quebec society, and that the neutrality of the province is not in peril.

Marois responded by asking if Fournier lived on the same planet, saying the bill was founded on the values of democracy, equality, and neutrality.

Canada’s Minister for Multiculturalism Jason Kenney, also weighed in, saying the bill is cause for concern, and that Ottawa will challenge it if the bill passes at the national assembly. 

Closer to home, Montreal’s newly elected mayor, Denis Coderre says his view on the charter has not changed.

He plans to meet with Montreal’s new councillors and introduce a resolution in city hall condemning it. 

Coderre says the bill affects individual rights, and it’s not possible to establish a hierarchy of rights.