The Quebec government tabled an extremely broad and contentious bill that will enshrine a provincial constitution and introduce sweeping legislative changes that will dramatically change the provincial legal landscape while curbing countervailing oversight on multiple fronts, according to constitutional law experts.
Bill 1, introduced without inclusive, cross-partisan consultation or input from civil society and the Aboriginal peoples, is an expansive patchwork of new statutes that would enact the Constitution of Québec, the Act respecting the constitutional autonomy of Québec and a constitutional council. The Québec Constitution Act, 2025 outlines a set of “founding principles,” including secularism, the equality of women and men, the right to abortion, the immigration integration model as opposed to multiculturalism, and French as the only common language of Quebec. As well, it enshrines the right access to medical assistance in dying in Quebec’s Charter.
Bill 1 also proposes a hierarchy of collective and individual rights, explicitly proposes to make gender equality prevail over the exercise of religious freedom in case of conflict, and bars a large number of organizations that receive public funds to mount legal challenges to laws declared by the government as protecting the “Québec nation,” its constitutional autonomy and “fundamental characteristics.” It also stipulates that a court cannot on its own initiative “seize itself” of any matter over the constitutionality of a rule of law without a formal application from the parties involved.