Montréal, November 6, 2025 – LEAF is intervening at the Supreme Court of Canada to demand recognition that the gender equality provision in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can and should be used to strike down Bill 21 as unconstitutional.
In September, LEAF submitted its intervention factum in English Montreal School Board et al. v. Attorney General of Québec et al. (EMSB). The EMSB case is about the constitutionality of Bill 21, or the Act respecting the laicity of the State. Among other things, Bill 21 prohibits people working in designated public institutions (including schools) from wearing religious symbols in their workplace and from covering their faces in the exercise of their functions.
The law has had significant discriminatory impacts on Muslim women in the Quebec education sector who wear a hijab or a niqab, as well as on Muslim women in Quebec more generally. As stated by feminist organizations (including LEAF) opposed to an expansion of Bill 21 earlier this year,
“the ban on wearing religious symbols has had disastrous consequences on [Muslim women’s] professional lives, limiting their career choices and undermining their economic security. This is compounded by an increase in psychological and physical violence against them. These women, who are often racialized, report experiencing more harassment in the workplace, in public and on social media. They live in a state of hypervigilance as they develop strategies to cope with the exclusion, discrimination and hatred legitimized by this law.”
Challenging the law is difficult because the Quebec government invoked the notwithstanding clause in this case. This clause allows a law to remain in effect even if it violates certain Charter rights, making it much harder to contest in court.
The notwithstanding clause does not apply to every part of the Charter. In our factum, we urge the Supreme Court to give full effect to section 28 of the Charter, which guarantees the equal exercise of Charter rights for people of all genders. When a law disproportionately limits women’s ability to exercise their rights—such as freedom of religion—it violates section 28. That is exactly what Bill 21 does.
What’s more, we argue that section 28 is not subject to the notwithstanding clause, meaning Bill 21 can still be struck down as unconstitutional.
“For forty years, section 28 has been overlooked,” says Ruth Goba, LEAF Executive Director. “As governments across the country increasingly rely on the notwithstanding clause to pass laws that violate fundamental human rights, it’s time for the Court to act. Section 28 is a powerful, constitutionally entrenched guarantee of gender equality — and the Court must recognize it as a tool capable of withstanding the notwithstanding clause.”
Download LEAF’s factum.
Véronique Roy, Simon Bouthillier, and Anita Badaku-Kpalley (McCarthy Tétrault LLP), as well as Cee Strauss (LEAF Senior Staff Lawyer), represented LEAF in this intervention.
LEAF is grateful to the members of the case committee that helped to shape this intervention: Sara Arsenault, Beverley Baines, Natasha Bakht, Nathalie Léger, and Colleen Sheppard.
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
About the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national not-for-profit that works to advance the equality of women, girls, and all people who experience gender-based discrimination in Canada through litigation, law reform, and public legal education. Since 1985, LEAF has intervened in more than 100 cases that have helped shape the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that have responded to violence against women and gender-diverse people, pushed back against discrimination in the workplace, allowed access to reproductive freedoms, and provided improved maternity benefits, spousal support, and the right to pay equity. To find out more, visit www.leaf.ca.
