Yes, absolutely. Bill 21 is a law that was passed with the explicit objective of taking away the rights of minorities. Leading up to Bill 21, there were long discussions in society about basically the discomfort many people faced with Muslim women in particular. Many governments prior to the CAQ had made recommendations to remove people's rights, but it was in 2019 that the Quebec government moved to enact a law that would take away the rights of citizens to practise certain professions.
This is, for me, as a Quebecer and as a Black Canadian, extremely disturbing. I come from a family that has been here for seven generations. When my father was born in 1949, Black people still didn't have the right to go to university and study what they wanted to or work where they wanted to. My grandfather couldn't work at the steel factory in Hamilton because the unions didn't want Blacks.
I am the first male born in the history of my family with the right to work and study where I want to, and I am the last generation of my family to be able to do so, because, once again, the Quebec government passed a law that means that people who look like me and my family are now barred from certain professions because of what we look like.
The Government of Quebec has returned my family to the 1940s. This is happening in Canada. The law was passed using the notwithstanding clause under a gag so that there was no debate at the National Assembly. This was done because the premier of Quebec said in an interview, after he passed this law, that sometimes you have to give a little bit to the majority, because there are racist people in society who are anxious about the way that religious minorities look in the streets.
This is something that our country cannot tolerate. Canada cannot be a liberal democracy if we have one set of rules for one type of people and another set of rules for another type of people based on their identity. There is a term used to describe citizens who have fewer rights than others based on their identity. This technical term is “second-class citizens”. That is what Bill 21 has created in our country.
It is this government's responsibility to ensure that a Canadian passport for my family means the same as a Canadian passport for any other Canadian family.