Quebec secular charter hearings begin

With public hearings now underway into Bill 60, the PQ minister responsible for the proposed secular charter, Bernard Drainville, called it a moderate document that offers made-in-Quebec secularism.

If passed, Bill 60 would bar all public sector employeesfrom wearing overtly religious symbols.

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More than 250 individuals, institutions and community organizations are expected to appear at the hearings, which are scheduled to run until Feb.7.

Members of the public had until Dec. 20 to submit either a brief or a request to appear at the hearings.

Opinions across Quebec are deeply divided on the proposed legislation, which was tabled in November by the government. Far from unifying Quebecers around the principle of secularism, Bill 60 has largely divided them along linguistic lines.

According to aLger Marketing poll released Monday by the MontrealGazette newspaper and the Canadian Institute for Identities and Migration,48 per cent of the 1,000 Quebecers surveyedfavourBill 60.

The poll suggests that support for the secular charter is far more firmly rooted in francophone Quebec, with 57 per cent of French-speaking respondents infavour of it. Support for Bill 60 plummeted among those polled who belong to other language groups, with only 16 per centexpressing strong support for it.

Outside the hearings on Tuesday, Drainville reiterated his viewthat the draft legislation is essential for Quebec, and the hearings are not likely to alter itin significant ways.

"It's a bill for Quebecers that reflects what we are as asociety," he said.

"It's a moderate, well-balanced bill and the kind of statesecularism that we are proposing is going to be a state secularismthat is unique to the Quebec society."

He believes the hearings will helpconvince Bill 60's critics that his government is listening to their concerns.

"Even if people are against the charter, if they have theimpression they have been listened to and respected, they will bemore inclined to respect it when it becomes law," he said.

Michelle Blanc will be one of the first to appear at the hearings. The popular blogger is part of a group of influentialQuebec womencalling themselves "theJanettes" who are promoting support for the secular charter.

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Blanctold CBC News that she supports Bill 60s emphasis on a secular Quebec.

If we state that we want a non-religious society, and that statement is shown in the public workers neutrality, to me thats good, and to me thats freedom, she said.

Those opposed to the secular charter worry that it will have just the opposite effect and deprive Quebecers of their fundamental rights. In its brief to the hearings committee, Montreals largest English-language school board said Bill 60 will instead endorse bullying.

"If you are putting out a law where you're saying it's inappropriate to wear a religious symbol and you're being treated differently and you're being taunted, you're being ridiculed, you're being bullied ... the government is not making our job very easy to combat that," school board spokesman Michael Cohen told CBC News.

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Political observers say a spring election could bring the hearings to an abrupt conclusion. If thats the case, theres little doubt that Bill 60 wouldbe a dominant issue on the campaign trail.

Its the last card that [the minorityPQ government] has to maybe be able to have a majority, saidAlec Castonguay, political bureauchief for the news magazinel'Actualit.