Panels

The panel discussions create a structured space for dialogue on the Quebec Charter in action, in reflection, and in question. By examining its practical implementation, its ongoing interpretive debates, and the critical perspectives emerging from student research, they explore its contemporary relevance and the directions it may take in the decades ahead.

The Quebec Charter in Action

This first part of the day seeks to grasp the Quebec Charter in its most concrete dimension: law in action. Beyond the normative text, the aim is to examine how the rights and freedoms it enshrines take shape in the everyday practices of protection, advocacy, and support on the ground.

Through the cross-perspectives of actors engaged in diverse contexts (community action, legal practice, advocacy for people in situations of vulnerability, and interventions with an international scope), this plenary session highlights the Charter’s practical uses, as well as the obstacles, tensions, and limits that mark its implementation.

This moment therefore seeks to question the real effectiveness of the guarantees offered by the Charter: Which protections function concretely? Which rights remain fragile or difficult to access? And how do field practices — sometimes in creative ways — bring the Charter to life beyond the courtroom?

The Quebec Charter in Reflection

The Quebec Charter is also a powerful object of critical reflection, having fueled debates, controversies, and doctrinal developments for fifty years. This second segment invites participants to step back from the immediate uses of law in order to examine the Charter’s foundations, internal tensions, and normative potential.

Which rights currently raise the most sensitive or polarizing questions? Which interpretations remain the subject of ongoing debate? And in which areas does the Charter stand out as particularly innovative or forward-looking — notably with respect to socio-economic rights, the protection of linguistic minorities, or fundamental freedoms?

By bringing together institutional, theoretical, and critical perspectives, this plenary session underscores that the Charter is not a static text, but a living space of collective reflection, where the balance between individual freedoms, collective values, and societal choices is continually reconsidered.

The Quebec Charter in Question

This third segment places the Quebec Charter under the critical lens of Observatory students, drawing on their research, fieldwork, and experiences in the community sector. By engaging with the Charter as an object of analysis, they highlight the complex — and at times uncomfortable — questions raised by the concrete application of fundamental rights.

The proposed panels examine grey areas, blind spots, and tensions between the principles proclaimed by the Charter and the lived realities of those concerned. They explore, in particular, the gaps between legal norms and institutional practices, as well as the specific challenges certain groups face in effectively exercising their rights.

By giving a central place to student voices, this segment affirms the Charter as a tool to be questioned, re-examined, and developed. The aim is less to provide definitive answers than to open a space for critical discussion oriented toward public action, institutional transformation, and the challenges of the decades to come.

The four sessions of this third segment of the day are designed as collaborative working groups, led by students from the Observatory. They aim to provide a dedicated space to present, deepen, and discuss the research conducted since the beginning of the academic year, in direct dialogue with invited speakers and practitioners.