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OTTAWA — National party leaders’ reluctance to intervene in a court challenge to Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 may have left the erroneous impression that there’s nothing the federal government can do to try to stop the law that bans teachers, police and certain other public servants from wearing religious symbols at work.

The Quebec government has, after all, invoked the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to prevent its secularism law from being struck down as a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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But while use of the notwithstanding clause makes a court challenge more difficult, constitutional experts say it does not necessarily provide a blanket shield against charter challenges, nor does it prevent the federal government from pursuing other legal avenues.

“There are legal bases for challenging the law that are not touched by the notwithstanding clause at all,” says Robert Leckey, dean of law at McGill University.