Supreme Court hearings on Quebec secularism law to begin March 23

MONTREAL — Hearings for one of the most highly anticipated Supreme Court of Canada cases in years are scheduled to begin March 23.

The country’s top court has set aside five days for arguments on Quebec’s 2019 secularism law, which prohibits public sector workers considered in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols on the job.

The law, known as Bill 21, is shielded from many constitutional challenges because it pre-emptively invokes a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allows a federal or provincial legislature to temporarily override certain rights.

One of the many interveners in the case is the government of Canada, which wants the court to set limits around how provincial governments can override basic rights using what is commonly known as the