PQ values charter violates human rights law, commission says

Quebecs human rights commission says the Parti Qubcois government'sproposed charter of valuesviolates the provinces existing human rights law andwould not survive a court challenge.

It says the ideas outlined in the government's policy paper jeopardize several fundamental rights and calls it a misguided attempt to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

However, the minister responsible for the proposed charter, Bernard Drainville, has dismissed that unequivocal condemnation of the proposed charter, saying the provincial human rights commission is out of step with Quebec society.

The war of words began in a news release issued earlier today.

In it, the commission said the proposed charter runs contrary to the spirit and the letter of Quebecs Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, which the provinces national assembly adopted in 1975.

The governments proposals are cause for serious concern. They represent a clear break from the Charter [of Human Rights and Freedoms], said the commissions chairman, Jacques Frmont. It is the most radical proposal modifying the Charter since its adoption.

Right to display religious symbols guaranteed

Frmont said the right to display one's religious symbols is protected by the provincial human rights charter, through the guarantees of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

"Banning religious symbols would exclude people from a large number of jobs based on the wearing of a religious and inferred perceptions of that symbol," the commission said in its release, "thus infringing their rights to freedom of expression and to equal access to employment."

Expanding on the right to religious freedom in an interview with CBC Radio News, Frmont said,Its a fundamental right, and the state has an obligation to remain neutral.What that neutrality means is that the state cannot force anyone not to wear religious signs if it is the persons wish to do so.

Equality between genders already protected, commission says

While one of the main goalsof the values charter say is toensure equality between women and men, Frmont told CBC that provinces human rights charter already guarantees that.

Rights of men and women and equality rights are well-protected already, he said.

Drainville said there have been "numerous cases" in which religious accommodations have undermined the principle of equality between men and women.

Frmont says his commission, which has the mandate to investigate such cases, simply hasn't seen evidence of that.

"We don't see a substantial number of complaints," he said. "We don't see huge tensions."

What really needs to be addressed is the issue of real equality, he said.

The real issues are access to labour, access to high positions and discrimination against women who are pregnant, Frmont said. "These are the issues we see on an everyday basis at the commission.