How Does it Feel to be a Problem? Inclusion and Exclusion and Quebec’s Bill 21

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze Bill 21 through the frameworks of minority rights and reasonable accommodation. It problematizes the “problem” of the veil, arguing that legislative deveiling, notably Bill 21, is a symptom of a larger crisis, namely the triumph of majoritarian politics over the constitutional protection of minority rights. Worse, while such laws are the result of popular discomfort with difference, their enactment further entrenches the binaries and assumptions that fuel such populist discomfort. As such, Bill 21 provides a useful case study of the role of law in responding to popular anxieties and in shaping perceptions of difference and equality in the first place.