What is the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms?

The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (Charte des droits et libertes de la personne du Quebec) is a quasi-constitutional statute enacted by the Quebec National Assembly that protects civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights within Quebec's jurisdiction. The Charter received assent on June 27, 1975 and came into force on June 28, 1976, predating the federal Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by six years. The Quebec Charter applies to provincial legislation, the Quebec public sector, private employers in Quebec, and many private actors providing services in Quebec.

The Quebec Charter is broader than the federal Charter in several ways. It protects rights in employment, housing, and access to services that the federal Charter does not directly cover, applying to private actors as well as government. It protects 14 grounds of discrimination including race, colour, sex, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, civil status, age, religion, political convictions, language, ethnic or national origin, social condition (a unique Quebec ground), and a handicap or the use of any means to palliate a handicap. It also protects economic and social rights including the right to free public education and to social-assistance measures (sections 39 to 48).

The Quebec Charter is administered by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, which receives complaints, investigates, attempts mediation, and (where necessary) refers cases to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal. The Tribunal can order remedies including monetary compensation, orders to cease the discriminatory practice, policy changes, and apologies. The Quebec Charter also protects youth rights through the Youth Section of the Commission, operating under the Youth Protection Act.

The Quebec Charter's notwithstanding-style override clause is in section 52, which allows the National Assembly to declare that a provision applies despite sections 1 to 38 of the Charter. The override has been used in Bill 21 (the Act respecting the laicity of the State, 2019) and Bill 96 (the French-language law of 2022), among others. The Quebec Charter also operates alongside the federal Charter and the Canadian Bill of Rights, with the federal Charter providing constitutional baseline protections and the Quebec Charter providing additional statutory protections within Quebec's jurisdiction. Constitutional litigation challenging Bill 21 includes Hak v. Quebec (Attorney General) (Quebec Court of Appeal, 2024), now on appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.