Secularism comes at a price: The Quebec Education Network has lost at least 25 teachers, almost all of them women, since passing the law banning the wearing of religious symbols. And that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg.
The law’s likely underestimated impact on the state’s secularism in Quebec’s schools comes as no surprise to the Autonomous Federation for Education, which is challenging Bill 21 in court.
“Probably a lot of people haven’t even tried [de se faire embaucher] knowledge [qu’]They would not be retained, argues President Mélanie Hubert. We’re talking 25, but we agree that compared to what happened, this is probably the tip of the iceberg and we’re depriving ourselves of longer-term relief.
Only at the Center de services scolaire de Montréal have at least five prospective teachers been prevented from hiring because of the state’s secularism law, and no fewer than eight teachers chose to resign after Bill 21 was passed. They are all women.
However, this is a very fragmented picture as management decided to stop collecting the data a few months after the law banning teachers from wearing the veil, kippah, turban and Christian crosses during working hours came into force. “There have been no statistics since then,” says the organization, which declined to give us the reasons for the decision.
And it’s not just Montreal’s schools that have had to forgo the services of teachers, while the education system labor shortage is glaring.
At the other end of Highway 20, the CSS des Découvreurs de Québec has had to forego five teacher candidates since 2019 because of the secularism law.
Several operations in the Montérégie and Laurentians have experienced similar situations. This applies to the CSS Vallée-des-Tisserands, Rivière-du-Nord, Grandes-Seigneuries and Mille-Îles. Again, those who had the information told us they were women.
Transfer or promotion denied
The same applies to CSS Portages-de-l’Outaouais, where two “teacher candidates” could not be hired “due to Law 21 and its ban on the wearing of religious symbols”.
In addition, six experienced teachers, who benefit from a grandfathering clause that allows them to continue showing their faith, declined transfers or promotions after the state’s secularism law came into force.
In fact, this law grants an acquired right to employees who were already in office before June 2019. However, this privilege is lost if you change role or organization.
It should be noted that only half of the CSS responded to our request for access to information and that a majority of the organizations indicated that they had no “documents” that could provide this information to explain the lack of response.
In its legal challenge, the FAE defends the right to work for all. “Our claim was that it specifically discriminated against certain groups. We had the assertion that it would mainly affect women, Muslims, not to mention them, and that it even called into question the principles of gender equality in our society and that it was unacceptable for us,” emphasizes Mélanie Hubert .
She believes that many prospective teachers have probably turned to other industries, which is not desirable given the labor shortage.
Almost 1,000 teachers are currently missing from Quebec schools, according to the latest data released by Le Journal.
The situation is such that school principals, daycare educators and even parents need to be called in to reinforce classrooms to replace teachers who are absent, either temporarily or for a long period of time, illustrated recently Nicolas Prévost, president of the Quebec Federation of Educational Establishment Directors (FQDE).
Montréal CSS
- For the 2019-2020 school year only
- 5 teacher candidates could not be hired due to Bill 21
- 8 teachers have left the CSS because of Bill 21
Explorer CSS
- 5 teacher candidates could not be hired due to Bill 21
Portages de l’Outaouais CSS
- 2 prospective teachers could not be hired due to Bill 21
- 6 teachers who benefited from a grandfathering clause in relation to Bill 21 and its ban on religious symbols refused transfers to another CSS or promotions under Bill 21
CSS of the Vale of the Weavers
- A teacher candidate could not be hired due to Bill 21
Thousand Islands CSS
- A teacher quit her job because of Bill 21
CSS de la Rivière du Nord
- A teacher candidate could not be hired because of Bill 21
CSS des Grandes Seigneuries
- 2 occasional replacements could not be hired due to Bill 21
* Data obtained from accessing information requests. It should be noted that only half of the school service centers responded to our request for access to information and a large number of organizations indicated that they had no “documents” that could provide this information to explain the lack of response .
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