I think we should welcome the broad use of freedom of expression in this committee. I'm going to say two things, quickly.
I'll come back first to the notwithstanding clause. I'd like to tell you right away that there is no derogation provision in Saudi Arabia, Iran or China. Do you know why? Because they are dictatorships. We have a notwithstanding clause in Canada because we're a democracy. So we're not going to start saying that the notwithstanding clause is bad in itself. We can argue about its use, but, in and of itself, it's not bad.
In answer to your question about Quebec's Bill 21, the Act respecting the Laicity of the State, personally, having had a Christian training, being a son of the Jesuits, I feel that conscience is fundamental. It's an inviolable place. However, we live in society and we have to know where we stand. I've just come back from a month's teaching in Poland, where I sort of bent to the cultural customs and taboos found there. In a society, when there's a broad democratic consensus, the thing to do is to bow to that democratic consensus if you're a democrat. If you're not a democrat, that's another story. But if you are, you have to go along with the democratic consensus, and you may not like everything in a given democracy. That, however, is the game of democracy.
As for Bill 21, I think it's a concession to make. It's not true that people are fired for wearing the hijab. Those who already had a hijab in school had a grandfather clause, and could continue to wear it. What's more, it's only limited to very specific categories of employees who represent the state. For the rest of the employees, there's no problem.