About the project
Overview
This research project seeks to assess the impact of Québec’s Loi sur la laïcité de l’état, or Law 21 (also known as Bill 21) on the career and residence choices and perceptions of Québec of students who are currently completing or who have recently completed university or CEGEP degrees in pertinent programs in law and in education, or who are making decisions about whether to undertake such training.
Background
Enacted in 2019, Law 21 mandates the laicity of the Quebec state and forbids Quebec public employees in positions of authority, including teachers, police officers and lawyers employed by the state, from wearing religious symbols — i.e., clothing or accessories that are worn on the basis of religious belief or indicate a religious affiliation — at work.
Why this target population?
The decision to focus our research on the student population, as opposed to individuals who are currently employed as lawyers or teachers, is deliberate.
Law 21 contains a grandfather clause exempting current employees from the prohibition on religious symbols; as a result, students and recent graduates in the fields of law and education are more likely to be directly affected by Law 21 than those who are already working in their chosen field.
Vision
Our project aims to capture data pertaining not only to those students who are enrolled, but also those who may have abandoned a career path in law or education as a result of Law 21.
This information will be made available for use by different parties seeking to assess the law’s impact on both a personal and a collective level.
Filling a critical gap in published research
In December 2019, the Quebec Court of Appeals rejected the petition to suspend Law 21 pending the Quebec Superior Court’s ruling on cases, anticipated for October 2020. This decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in May 2020.
In the decision, Judge Mainville stated that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the law would cause irreparable harm as there are no published studies that indicate how many people might be affected by the law, nor studies that measure how the law may affect men and women differently.
As the judge’s comments indicate, there is a critical gap within the scholarship on Quebec’s secularism policies. While much has been written on the legal and political significance of Law 21, there is a gap of published research measuring the real effect of this legislation on individuals.
Informing public debate
In addition to learning more about students and recent employees in education and law, we seek to inform public debate through centralizing information about Law 21 and its impact in a readily accessible format.
Projects
This study includes the voluntary survey of students who are enrolled in or who have recently graduated from law and education programs within Quebec or who are planning to attend school in either discipline.
Further work will include qualitative interviews and analysis of admissions statistics.