Notwithstanding Clause
The Notwithstanding Clause
What Is the Notwithstanding Clause?
The notwithstanding clause allows a government to override a wide range of rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- The right to life, liberty, and security of the person
- Equality before and under the law
- Freedom of religion
- Freedom of expression
- Protection from unreasonable search and seizure
- Important legal protections
This is an extraordinarily far-reaching power.
It allows rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by law to be treated as privileges granted by the government. When those rights become inconvenient to a political agenda, they can be pushed aside.
The clause can remain in effect for five years and can be renewed repeatedly.
Put simply, it allows a government to say:
We know this law may violate your rights, but we are enforcing it anyway.
Our Position
The Canadian Party of Quebec opposes the use of the notwithstanding clause.
The Charter exists to protect Canadians from government overreach. These rights are not suggestions or temporary privileges. They are constitutional protections that belong to the people.
Governments should be required to justify restrictions on rights and defend their laws before independent courts.
Our rights must never be pushed aside to serve separatist, nationalist, partisan, or government agendas.
How It Has Been Used in Quebec
The Parti Québécois, Quebec Liberal Party, and Coalition Avenir Québec have all used the notwithstanding clause.
Although their political messages differ, each has placed political objectives ahead of the full protection of Charter rights.
01Parti Québécois
Premier René Lévesque
After the Charter came into effect in 1982, the Parti Québécois broadly applied the notwithstanding clause across Quebec legislation.
Its use was not limited to one law or one exceptional situation. It formed part of the separatist government’s rejection of the new Canadian constitutional framework.
02Quebec Liberal Party
Premier Robert Bourassa
The Quebec Liberal Party has a longstanding record of placing nationalist language policies ahead of the rights of English-speaking Canadians.
In 1974, Bourassa’s government passed Bill 22, declaring French Quebec’s only official language and restricting access to English-language education. The notwithstanding clause did not yet exist, but the law helped establish the nationalist language framework later expanded by the Parti Québécois.
In 1988, after the Supreme Court ruled that Quebec’s French-only commercial sign rules violated freedom of expression, the Liberal government passed Bill 178 and invoked the notwithstanding clause to continue enforcing them.
Rather than respecting the Court’s ruling, the Liberals overrode a fundamental freedom.
Calling oneself federalist is not enough. Federalism must be defended in practice.
03Coalition Avenir Québec
Premier François Legault
The CAQ has repeatedly used the notwithstanding clause before courts could fully review its laws.
This is known as pre-emptive use.
Bill 21 used the clause to shield restrictions on religious symbols from challenges based on freedom of religion and equality rights.
Bill 40 used it as part of the government’s attempt to replace elected school boards with centralized school service centres.
Bill 96 broadly applied it to Quebec’s language laws, limiting full Charter review of measures affecting government services, education, employment, businesses, and access to services in English.
Different Parties, the Same Choice
The PQ used the clause as part of its rejection of the Canadian constitutional order.
The Liberals used it after the Supreme Court had already confirmed that a fundamental freedom had been violated.
The CAQ has used it pre-emptively to protect nationalist, identity, language, and centralizing legislation.
Different parties made the same dangerous choice: when Charter rights became inconvenient, they pushed them aside.
What We Will Do
The Canadian Party of Quebec will oppose every attempt to invoke or renew the notwithstanding clause.
We will:
- Vote against any law that overrides Charter rights
- Force debate in the National Assembly and in public whenever the clause is proposed or renewed
- Make the parties voting in favour clearly identify which rights they are overriding and who will be affected
- Require those parties to explain directly to Quebecers why they believe the people’s rights and freedoms can be pushed aside
- Demand recorded votes so every elected representative is publicly accountable
- Expose attempts to pass these measures quietly, routinely, or through unanimous political agreement
- Defend equality, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, legal rights, bilingualism, and equal citizenship
When other parties agree to override Charter rights without meaningful opposition, the Canadian Party of Quebec will force the issue into the open.
No party should be allowed to vote away the rights of Canadians without facing the people and explaining why it believes those rights no longer deserve the full protection of the law.
Our rights belong to the people, not to premiers or political parties.
Governments must uphold our rights, not override them.