Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger proposes fight against Quebec's Bill 21

Thestar.com
December 17, 2021

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger is heeding the call from Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and other municipal officials across the country to fight against Quebec’s Bill 21.

Eisenberger introduced a notice of motion at the Dec. 15 council meeting requesting staff review “all available means,” including a financial contribution, to support a legal challenge to Bill 21.

The mayor’s proposed motion denounces the legislation, stating it “violates the basic Charter of Rights and Freedoms” of Canadians and it is a “clear demonstration of Islamophobia.”

Councillors did not address the motion at their meeting, but will wait until January 2022 to discuss it.

The mayor’s motion comes in the wake of Brown appealing to 100 Canadian mayors in an open letter to “join the fight” against Bill 21. Brown’s motion approved during a recent special Brampton council meeting, included the mayor’s invitation to mayors and councils from across the country to donate to legal funds fighting Bill 21 in courts.

“Gone are the days when we can turn a blind eye to an injustice we see across municipal, provincial, and even federal boundaries,” Brown wrote in a letter. “We can’t allow the defence of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the defence of religious freedom, to lie on the backs of racialized communities.”

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she would introduce a motion to Calgary city council to assist in the legal challenge.

In 2019, Brampton became the first municipality to pass a resolution opposing Bill 21, when it was adopted into law in June 2019.

The law is facing several court challenges that could last years and eventually reach the Supreme Court.

Bill 21 prohibits public workers in Quebec from wearing religious symbols, such as a head scarf, turban, kippah, or visible crucifix. The bill, opponents say, targets Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, and Christians, many of whom wear religious symbols as an expression of their identity.

Recently, a Grade 3 teacher in Chelsea, Que., Fatemeh Anvari, was reassigned from her job as a teacher to a position outside the classroom because she wore a head scarf in her classroom.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently stated that while he is “deeply” opposed to Bill 21, his government won’t step into the legal challenge taking place in Quebec.