CSL gives human rights honours to former Quebec ministers
The City of Côte St. Luc held a ceremony last week at Trudeau Park to add former Quebec MNAs and ministers Clifford Lincoln, Richard French and, posthumously, Herbert Marx to its Human Rights Walkway.
They were honoured for their principled stance when the Bourassa government used the Notwithstanding clause in the late 1980s to override a Supreme Court decision that struck down part of Quebec’s language of signs law. All three resigned from cabinet and did not run in the 1989 election — their seats were won by the Equality Party. Lincoln was famous for stating “right are rights are rights.”
On hand for the ceremony were Lincoln, now 97, French and members of the late Herbert Marx’s family, CSL Mayor Mitchell Brownstein and members of council; former CSL Mayor and Equality Party leader Robert Libman, who initiated the Human Rights Walkway; former CSL councillor Allan Levine; MNAs Elisabeth Prass and Desirée McGraw; Chelsea Craig representing Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather; English Montreal School Board director-general Nick Katalifos; and students from Edinburgh School in Montreal West and Solomon Schechter Academy in NDG.
Councillor Mike Cohen, chair of the Human Rights Walkway, said that as manger of marketing and communications at the EMSB, “I’ve had a front-row seat to the challenges the anglophone community faces in regards to the CAQ government that tramples on the rights of minorities.” He also called on those in the CAQ who are not sovereignist or anti-anglo to stand up as the three honourees did nearly 40 years ago.
Cohen also thanked CSL council for agreeing to his recommendation to induct the three men “who put their political careers on the line because they stood up for their principles.”
Brownstein said the fight for anglophone and minority rights continues.
“We are inspired by you,” he told the inductees. “We will continue to do our best to support these rights as you did in 1988. The Human Rights Walkway is a place dedicated for those who stood firm for justice, dignity and human rights.”
Prass, the D’Arcy McGee MNA, told the ceremony that as a young MNA of the Quebec Liberals, she is inspired by the “gestures, bravery and courage it took them to defend our community and act by conviction.”
A message from Housefather, as read by Craig, director of operations for the MP, says that the Walkway “is an important reminder of how CSL has always stood up for everyone.
“As a city, we have never skirted away from speaking out in favour of the Charter of Rights and the importance of both of Canada’s official languages, and them being respected,” the former CSL Mayor’s message added. “The city has decided to honour three men who put principles first.”
Lincoln himself said the Bourassa government using the Notwithstanding clause “was a huge issue.
“And that was after a judgment of the Supreme Court. Today, the Notwithstanding clause is used willy nilly, casually, blatantly, preemptively to shelter rights from us and to shelter our rights of redress before the courts. It is unacceptable!”
French said he still believes Quebec is a great place to live and an extraordinary province.
“If we’re here in Quebec, it’s because we want to be in Quebec, because we feel comfortable in Quebec. Do we feel comfortable about our rights? No, we don’t. We have the rights that the Quebec National Assembly feels like providing to us, and the Charters are essentially window dressing under the current circumstances. But I would hope that we would not allow this shadow to spoil the reality of life here.”
Herbert Marx’s son Robert, now an orthopedic surgeon in New York City, told the gathering that the former D’Arcy McGee MNA “would be so proud.
“He was such a defender of human rights and one of the leaders of the Quebec Human Rights Commission long before politics, and then in politics as well.”