Parti Qubcois calls to block court challenges against face-covering ban

Parti Qubcois Leader Jean-Franois Lise said ifhis party were in power, he would invoke the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Constitution to stop a court challenge of the province's new face-covering ban.

"There would be no possible recourse to the courts to get out of it,"Lise said at a news conference Wednesday.

The Liberal government has come under fire from every direction since passing Bill 62 last week, which forbids those with their faces covered from giving or receiving services from nearly all provincially and municipally funded institutions.

• Amid criticism, Quebec explains the rules of its face-covering ban

Some of the law's many critics, including constitutional lawyer Julius Grey and federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, have said they expect the courts will overturn the law, ruling it violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The PQ, along with the Coalition Avenir Qubec, have criticized the government for not going far enough.

The Constitution's so-called notwithstanding clause allows governments to override parts of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in exceptional circumstances.

"There is a way to get around this problem,"Lisesaid.

"The notwithstanding clause allows us to say 'Regardless of what is written in this article in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we are going to do this. Regardless.'"

Were the Couillard government to invoke the clause, it would not be the first time a Liberal provincial government has done so.

In 1988, then-premier Robert Bourassa invoked the clause when he introduced Bill 178, which decreed that only French could be used on exterior signs while English would be allowed inside commercial establishments.

• What you can and can't do wearing a niqab in Quebec

While Lise said he does not believe the Liberal government will invoke the clause, he's vowing to do so if the PQ is elected in 2018.

He also said he would change the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms so that citizens could also not make use of it to challenge the ban either.

Not off the table

Quebec Justice Minister Stphanie Valle said her government has no plans right now to consider invoking the notwithstanding clause.

"There are no challenges in the courts,"she said.

"It is one of the means that we have available to us, but we are not there."

No niqabs in public

If the PQwere to come to power, it would also strike up a committee of experts to examine the possibility of banning Muslim face-coverings, including the niqab andburqa, from all public places.

The party is also pledging to introduce its own bill by Christmas that would impose penalties against those who fail to comply with Quebec's current face-covering ban.

So far, McGill University has said it will continue to operate as it had before the law, without explaining whether or not that means its policies already fell within its rules.

Lise considers the statement to mean the universitydoes not intend to comply with the law.

"The main anglophone university has said to the government'It doesn't bother me. Vote for whatever laws you want. They will bring no changes to how we apply things here,'"he said.

• Niqab-wearing McGill studentunsure how Bill 62 will affect her studies

The PQ's proposed bill would apply theface-covering ban just as Quebec's law against texting while driving is enforced which could involve having people call the police if someone refuses to obey it,he said.

Itwould also prohibit people who wear religious symbols from working as judges, prison guards, police officers and any newly hired daycare workers who work within elementary and secondary schools.