MONTREAL, December 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The town council of Hampstead, a suburb of Montreal, has said they will “not comply” with the Parti Quebecois government’s proposed secularist charter in a resolution passed Monday night.
The resolution, which was proposed by Mayor William Steinberg, says that if the Charter passes the town “will not recognize it as a valid law.”
“We will not comply. We will not be complicit with hatred, racism and intolerance,” it adds.
Quebec's Bill 60, which would institute a ban on public employees wearing “ostentatious” marks of religion, including large crucifixes, has met widespread opposition and protests, including criticism from the provincial opposition parties, educational institutions, and hospitals.
Both Sherbrooke University and McGill University have denounced the ban on religious symbols, and last month, Jewish General Hospital suggested they would refuse to comply, calling the bill “discriminatory and deeply insulting.”
On Thursday, the English Montreal School Board said they would refuse to implement the ban on religious garb. School board commissioner Syd Wise told CBC that the bill “runs contrary to what we as educators try to teach our kids.”
In response, however, Quebec’s Minister of Education insisted school boards will be forced to comply. “Maybe some school boards have some opinions, but I think when the law will be voted on, it will have to be applied,” Marie Malavoy said, according to CBC. “I think everybody will have to accept it.”
The Hampstead town council, in its resolution Monday night, said Bill 60 violates both the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
The bill, they said, forces people of faith “to choose between their beliefs and obtaining or keeping a job.”
The resolution says the council wished to “stand up for the rights of minorities against the tyranny of an unjust law,” and that the bill amounts to “the persecution of religion by the state.”
“All men and women, whether they believe in a deity or not, have a moral obligation to oppose any infringements on the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed in a liberal democracy,” they said.