The Quebec Liberal party will vote against the Charter of Values -- but says some of the Parti Quebecois's proposals to restrict religious symbols among Quebec's public employees make sense.
A party committee that is preparing the party's response to the PQ government's proposed Charter of Values will also now consider prohibiting the wearing of large religious symbols by people in positions of authority, such as police officers, judges, prison guards and prosecutors.
“We're considering the particular situation of coercive agents of the state,” said Liberal leader Philippe Couillard.“It does not necessarily have to end with a ban.”
Couillard said Tuesday there may be ways to work out religious accommodations without resorting to laws, and certainly without falling afoul of the constitution and resorting to the notwithstanding clause.
Instead the Liberals will consider bills regarding the religious neutrality of the state and the protection of youths from religious fundamentalism -- and wayward MNA Fatima Houda-Pepin will be working on those matters, advising two party committees.
Last week Houda-Pepin criticized her party's blanket rejection of the Charter of Values and comments made by secularism critic Marc Tanguay that the party would accept a candidate who wore a chador, a cloak that is often forced on women by religious fundamentalists in Iran.
A few days later, Couillard criticized Houda-Pepin's tactics and said that she had to apologize. On Tuesday, she was in the Liberal caucus meeting and was standing side-by-side with Couillard as he presented the new Liberal positions on religious freedom.
“I am a team worker and I will continue to do so,” she said.
Houda-Pepin said she and the caucus discussed her tactics in going public with her disagreements, but she did not apologize.
Just a few weeks ago Couillard warned the passage of any bill that threatened fundamental individual rights - such as a symbols ban - would have to come over 'my dead body.'
Media reports say some Liberal MNAs have warned Couillard that the party's total opposition to a ban was not selling well in rural areas of Quebec.
Other parties are also seeing Couillard’s shift as a sign there could be compromise on the issue.
“He made a major flip-flop in the last few hours, saying that right now he is in line with our position,” said CAQ leader Francois Legault.
Couillard, however, said he still wants to carve out a deal on the state’s neutrality on religion.
“I've always been open to that,” he said. “The fact is this PQ government is acting in a very arrogant way. It behaves as if it were a majority government.”
The PQ saying the Liberals’ move is nice, but an all-party consensus on the charter is probably wishful thinking.
“I'm not that optimistic but I'd like today to say that there is some positive movement,” said Jean-François Lisée, minister of the Montreal region.
