Almost 800 Quebec organizations utterly reject Bill 1

Almost 800 Quebec organizations utterly reject Bill 1

Sherbrooke Record · 3 days ago
by Matthew Mccully · News


Group opposing the CAQ’s Quebec constitution says the number of signatories is unprecedented

Michael Keegan
The Record – LJI

A declaration categorically rejecting the Coalition Avenir Québec’s proposed bill to create a Quebec constitution has been signed onto by 779 civil society groups from across the province, according five major organizations who held an online press conference on March 17.

Leaders from the Confederation of Trade Unions (CSN), the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ), the Quebec Women’s Federation (FFQ), the Autonomous Community Action Network of Quebec (RQ-ACA), and Quebec’s Rights and Freedoms League (LDL) held a press conference in French at the National Assembly in Quebec City to lay out the reasons why they and hundreds of organizations from across Quebec say Bill 1 must be withdrawn altogether.

On the LDL’s website, the English version of the declaration they all signed onto reads as follows:“Bill 1, the Quebec Constitutional Act, 2025, is a deliberate attack on democracy and human rights. The process is unilateral and rushed, and does not meet any of the democratic criteria for drafting a legitimate constitution. Furthermore, it perpetuates a colonial mindset by denying Indigenous people’s right to self-determination. Instead of addressing the issues that actually concern citizens (health, education, housing, the environment, gender equality, the cost of living, etc.), the government is attacking rights and freedoms, checks and balances, and the rule of law. Consequently, the undersigned groups demand the complete withdrawal of Bill 1.”

Caroline Senneville, President of the CSN, spoke first. Calling a constitution the foundation of a nation, she said, “What we have before us is a partisan bill from a government that day after day is losing its legitimacy, with a premier who has a known expiry date in April, a few weeks from now.”

Senneville said the bill had three fundamental flaws, the first being that it ignores First Nations. She said the second is that a constitution should be the law of laws, and the closest Quebec already has to such a thing — the Quebec Charter of Rights – is weakened by the bill. The third, she said, was that it was an extremely divisive document.

“That’s starting with three strikes,” she said.



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