Quebec draft constitution seeks to acquire 'more autonomy,' not pave way for independence: minister
OTTAWA — Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette says his goal is not to unilaterally declare Quebec independence with his recently tabled draft constitution.
In an interview with the National Post, Jolin-Barrette, who is also minister responsible for Canadian relations, said that his intention is to give Quebec the necessary tools to increase its autonomy so that the Canadian federation can work better as a whole.
“Sovereignty is a project that is legitimate,” he said. “However, that is not the objective of the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) government. Our project is (to stay) within Canada.”
“When federate states, of which Canada is composed, acquire more autonomy, the federation wins.”
Jolin-Barrette is the CAQ minister who piloted Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 prohibiting religious signs in the public space and the equally controversial Bill 96 to restrict the use of English in businesses and public services, in the government’s first mandate.
With less than one year to go before the next election, and with the Parti Québécois (PQ) surging in the polls, the “true blue” minister tabled last month a constitution containing elements that are sure to please the CAQ’s nationalist base, but also a number of PQ supporters.
Bill 1, the Quebec Constitution Act, is a dense 40-page legislation seeking to amend over 20 existing laws, including the Constitution Act of 1867 and the Civil Code of Quebec.
Jolin-Barrette said this bill is the result of an “evolving process” meant to consolidate the CAQ’s work to assert secularism in Quebec and the predominance of the French language.
Adopting a provincial constitution was also a key recommendation from an advisory committee in 2024. Quebec Premier François Legault named Jolin-Barrette as minister of Canadian relations in early 2025 and gave him the task of crafting such a constitution.
“It’s an anomaly that Quebec does not have a constitution,” said Jolin-Barrette.
Bill 1 reads in its legislative text as the “law of laws” and is deemed to have “precedence over any inconsistent rule of law” — including federal laws. For instance, Quebec’s more permissive medical assistance in dying regime prevails over the federal regime.
It also enshrines into the constitution Quebec’s civil law tradition as well as “distinct social values,” such as equality between women and men.
However, the bill has been criticized for state overreach, including vowing to protect “women’s freedom to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy.”
Medical experts have raised the alarm over enshrining the right to abortion in the constitution, arguing that that clause will necessarily be challenged in court by anti-abortion groups and that the government could end up eroding women’s right to choose.
Jolin-Barrette said he hears those concerns and wants to reassure those groups that the constitution simply ensures an “obligation” for Quebec to defend abortion rights, should those rights come “under attack,” but it is not a way to legislate the issue.
Another source of criticism is prohibiting publicly funded organizations, such as school boards, from using taxpayer dollars to pay for court challenges of laws that protect the “fundamental characteristics of Quebec.” That includes secularism of the state.
Earlier this month, the Quebec Bar Association also took the unusual step of denouncing Bill 1 and other recent legislation by the CAQ, explaining in a press release that restricting court challenges could erode the “rule of law.”
Jolin-Barrette said the bar association’s reaction lacked some nuance. “This doesn’t mean that a (publicly funded organization) would not be able to challenge a law,” he said. “It could do it, but not with the money — taxes, income tax, government transfers — from citizens.”
Opposition parties at the National Assembly of Quebec have criticized Jolin-Barrette’s lack of consultation, including with Indigenous peoples, prior to tabling such a foundational document for the province.
Even PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon criticized the bill before it was even tabled, saying that adopting a law with the word “constitution” written on it would not generate any additional autonomy for Quebec, nor would it change the current legal reality.
“In a nutshell, a ‘constitution’ has no sense if it is not the constitution of a country, because it will be a simple law that is subordinate to an absolutely dysfunctional and outdated Canadian constitution,” St-Pierre Plamondon said on Oct. 7.
The PQ leader dismissed it as a “gadget” that would be used for electoral purposes, going even so far as calling it a “decorative” constitution.
Jolin-Barrette did not mince words when asked about St-Pierre Plamondon’s criticism.
“My entire political commitment, in recent years, has been to give more tools and autonomy to Quebec. The constitution is an additional tool,” he said.
“If the Parti Québécois is disagreeing with this, it is disavowing its past.”
Consultations on Bill 1 are set to start next week, and clause-by-clause study is expected to happen in the spring. Quebec could find itself with a constitutional law before the end of the CAQ’s mandate.
Jolin-Barrette said there is a movement within Canada where provincial governments are seeking to obtain more autonomy, like in Alberta and in Saskatchewan, and that Quebec is simply following that path. He also said he is hoping other provinces will follow their lead.
“When provinces win, it’s the entire federal union that wins.”
National Post calevesque@postmedia.com
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