Chief Justice Richard Wagner does not know if the Supreme Court of Canada will render its decision on Bill 21 on state secularism before the Quebec elections this fall, and particularly on the preventive use of the notwithstanding clause that the François Legault government used to exempt it from the exercise of certain rights.
“Honestly, I don’t know when the verdict will be delivered. (…) It could be delivered next week, or it could be delivered in several months,” he told reporters who questioned him during his annual press conference on Tuesday.
Judge Wagner noted that he wants Judge Sheilah L. Martin to sign the judgment despite her having announced her resignation on May 30.
“It is customary for the Chief Justice to grant an additional six-month period to allow the resigning judge to process and draft their judgments,” he said. “So, you have a sufficient window of time from today until almost six months during which the judgment will be rendered.”
The six-month delay would lead to Nov. 30, which means that the judgment could exceed the holding of the Quebec elections on Oct. 5.
With four days of hearings and “the largest number of interveners in the Court’s history”, the Bill 21 case was a “major” one for the country’s highest court, Justice Wagner insisted.
Law 21 prohibits certain state employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols, while requiring anyone offering or receiving a service from the state to have their face uncovered.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
