Secular values in Bill 60 Charter of Values
The introduction of Bill 60, commonly referred to as the Charter of Values, mobilized the attention of the media, politicians, interest groups and the general public to a range of issues at once difficult, complex and sensitive. How did Bill 60 come about? How has secularism emerged as a topic for public action? What raised its status? Lexical and content analyses of the topic of “secularism” in the Bill reveal how the issue is framed from the government perspective. This study traces the roots of this unique symbolic configuration in light of the agenda-setting process of political platforms. It exposes in particular the strategic interventions initiated by the political, partisan and government actors.