What is Quebec's Bill 21 (the Act respecting the laicity of the State)?

Quebec's Bill 21 is the Act respecting the laicity of the State, a Quebec statute that received assent on June 16, 2019 and prohibits Quebec public-sector employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols (including the Islamic hijab, the Sikh turban and kirpan, the Jewish kippah, and the Christian cross) while exercising their functions. Affected positions include police officers, judges, Crown prosecutors, prison guards, government lawyers, and public-school teachers. The Act invokes the section 33 notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the section 52 override clause of the Quebec Charter to shield the law from most rights-based challenge.

Bill 21 declares Quebec to be a lay (secular) state and codifies four lay principles: separation of state and religious organisations, religious neutrality of the state, equality of all citizens, and freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. The Act also requires that government services be provided and received with face uncovered, subject to certain narrow exceptions. Public-sector employees who held positions of authority before the law's adoption were grandfathered in but cannot transfer or be promoted into other covered positions.

Bill 21 has been challenged extensively. The Quebec Superior Court in Hak v. Procureur general du Quebec (April 20, 2021) upheld most of the law but held that it was inoperative for English-language school boards (because the section 33 override could not displace section 23 of the federal Charter on minority-language education) and that section 28 of the Charter (gender equality) might not be amenable to section 33 override. The Quebec Court of Appeal (February 29, 2024) allowed the appeal and reinstated Bill 21 in full, holding that the section 33 override is procedural and that the Court cannot review its substantive use. The Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal from March 23 to 26, 2026 in a four-day hearing (one of the longest in the Court's history) and reserved judgment.

Bill 21 has reshaped Canadian constitutional debate. It has been supported by majorities of Quebec voters in successive opinion polls, including by majorities of every immigrant-origin community except Muslim Quebecers. It has been opposed by the federal Liberal government, Sikh and Muslim community organisations, Jewish rights groups, civil-liberties organisations, and the New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Yukon legislatures. Hijab-wearing teacher Fatemeh Anvari's removal from her Grade 3 classroom in Chelsea, Quebec in December 2021 became a national symbol of the law's effects. The federal government has reserved the right to intervene before the Supreme Court but has not invoked the section 90 power of disallowance.