French universities reject secular charter

Quebec’s largest university is rejecting the Canadian province’s secular charter as a useless measure, adding to signs of a growing revolt against Parti Québécois’ controversial bill, writes Ingrid Peritz for The Globe and Mail.

The French-language University of Montreal is challenging the very basis of the government’s argument for its legislation. When the minister responsible for the charter, Bernard Drainville, introduced it in September, he said it was meant to address a crisis over religious accommodations that had festered for years and created tensions in Quebec.

The university searched its human resources files going back 20 years and found no incidents whatsoever involving conflicts over religious accommodations. Whatever minor incidents that occurred were quickly settled by applying the university’s internal rules, a spokesperson said. The university decided at a meeting of faculty, student representatives and administrators last Monday that the government’s legislation served no purpose.
Full report on The Globe and Mail site