Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard attends a news conference in Quebec City on Jan. 21, 2014.CLEMENT ALLARD/The Canadian Press
Philippe Couillard weathered his first political storm as head of the Quebec Liberal party that put his leadership to the test and played havoc with party unity.
For weeks Mr. Couillard went against his own instincts and hesitated to adopt a firm position on the Parti Québécois' contentious secular charter bill that would ban the wearing of overt religious symbols by public-sector employees. Mr. Couillard's wavering on the issue projected the image of an unsure, indecisive leader.
He appeared more concerned about silencing the dissident voice within his caucus of MNA Fatima Houda-Pepin. Ms. Houda-Pepin demanded that her party stand up to religious fundamentalists by accepting a prohibition of religious symbols for public servants in positions of authority, such as police, judges and prosecutors. She argued that the hijab, a head veil worn by Muslim women, was a sign of submission imposed by fundamentalists and had to be banned from the public sector.
While debate raged on within the party, Mr. Couillard concluded he couldn't accept such a ban. "The buck stops here," he said.
Convinced that any prohibition would violate the fundamental right to freedom of religion guaranteed under the Canadian and Quebec charter of rights and freedoms, Mr. Couillard rejected Ms. Houda-Pepin's call for a prohibition of religious symbols and ousted her from the Liberal caucus.
The events unfolded as a National Assembly committee began public hearings into the PQ's secular charter bill. The Liberals knew all too well that they had lost control of the political agenda. They fought back by leaking to the media the briefs of the Quebec Bar Association and the Quebec Human Rights Commission, which supported Mr. Couillard's legal arguments. But it was too late. Public opinions was already polarized and polls indicated this week that while Mr. Couillard tried to put the issue behind him, support for the PQ secular charter remained strong while that of the Liberal party was dropping steadily.
Mr. Couillard had difficulty gauging how not quickly adopting a clear position on religious accommodations would cost him. On the one hand he posed as the defender of fundamental rights, of openness, tolerance and inclusion. At the same time he tried to appeal to voters – many within his own party – who argued that sometimes religious rights within the public sector needed to be constrained to ensure state neutrality.
For Mr. Couillard it became a no-win situation.
"I want to condemn this government for acting as demagogues. There is no other term for it. They literally invented a social crisis, artificially created it," Mr. Couillard said earlier this week. "It is irresponsible on the government's part to have tabled legislation that according to Quebec law is illegal and it must be condemned for doing that."
To this day, the government has yet to produce any study showing that the wearing of religious symbols by public service employees was evolving into a social crisis. The government has no idea how many nurses, teachers, daycare workers and civil servants in Quebec wear a hijab, a crucifix or a kippa on the job. It has no idea what impact its proposed ban will have on Muslim women and their ability to find a job in the public sector as a means to integrate into Quebec society.
But what the PQ does know is that the issue has so profoundly divided voters that it wants the next election to come down to a choice between its proposed secular charter bill and the Liberal opposition to it. The PQ hopes that by imposing a wedge issue on such a controversial subject in the next campaign that the Coalition Avenir Québec will fall into oblivion and deliver enough votes for Premier Pauline Marois to win a majority government.
Mr. Couillard's challenge will be to revamp his damaged leadership image enough to divert public opinion away from the secular charter issue and focus it instead on the economy, jobs and the potential threat of another referendum on sovereignty under a PQ majority government.
Rhéal Séguin is The Globe's Quebec City correspondent.