Lincoln: The UN is calling us out. It’s time we listened

Canada and Quebec are rightly seen as open societies, which makes the rapporteurs’ concerns all the worthier of priority attention.

The International Commission of Jurists Canada should be commended for having asked the UN Human Rights Council to review Quebec’s proposed constitution (Bill 1) on the basis that the legislation infringes upon minority and Indigenous rights.

Bill 1 has since died on the order paper at the National Assembly’s final session on June 12 — a welcome death for all those of us who believe that human rights are the very foundation of democratic life.

Even if we are now freed from the discriminatory and widely decried Bill 1, the conclusions of the UN human rights rapporteurs remain both relevant and pertinent, and could no doubt be applied to the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s major legislation and its systematic and deliberate disregard for fundamental rights, and especially minority rights.