Quebec's Charter of Values: Preliminaries to the Charter - Implications of State Sovereignty Over Education, Religion and Ethics

Abstract

Summary This outline suggests that the principal political parties in Quebec are committed to the position thatthe state and its functionaries are the primary authorities in education, including the moral, ethicaland religious education of children. They appear to relegate parents and subsidiary institutions -especially religious authorities - to what is, at best, a secondary role: one, moreover, that can beunilaterally defined and limited - perhaps even abolished - by state power.There is no reason to believe that health care workers and their associations will be treateddifferently. It is very doubtful that the government would afford state functionaries a deference thatit denies to parents in the education of their own children.Return to the question: will the government of Quebec - sooner or later - use its Charter of Values tosuppress freedom of conscience and religion among health care workers?The Quebec government's assumption of sovereignty over education and the religious and ethical