After a significant taxpayer backlash, Calgary councillors decided not to use local taxpayer dollars to fight Quebec's Bill 21. Instead, opponents of the bill that seeks to ban religious symbols in the workplace launched a GoFundMe campaign to bring in the funds to fight the bill in the courts..Quebec's Bill 21 intended purpose is to banish religious paraphernalia such as the crucifix, the Islamic hijab and niqab, and the Sikh turban..In December 2021, Calgary City council formed a task force that engaged with Calgarians on ways to support legal challenges against Quebec's controversial secularism law, Bill 21..Council voted 10-5 in favour of supporting the joint legal challenge being brought by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the World Sikh Organization, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association against the bill..The task force — Calgary councillors Jasmine Mian, Raj Dhaliwal, and Evan Spencer — consulted with local legal and religious communities about what they were willing to do..Mian spoke with CBC Radio and shared those councillors' views on the unprecedented — and potentially controversial — decision to spend time coordinating a legal campaign using a public crowdfunding platform to help challenge the legislation. It's a fight that could go all the way to the high court..Mian said the task force had recognized that sending Calgary taxpayers' dollars to fight an out-of-province partisan legal battle was unacceptable.."I think the bar for sending taxpayer dollars outside the province is extraordinarily high. And that was a discussion we had as a council when [the issue] came before us in December. And so we opted not to do that. [It] was widely supported... But we also heard from Calgarians who they felt we should do something. And so we met with the three organizations that are doing that legal challenge and ask them if they'd be willing to set up some type of fundraising mechanism, because that didn't exist before. And it took a little while for them to get it set up, but they have and we launched yesterday," Mian said.."Those groups who will get the money are the Canadian Civil Liberties Association along with the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh organization of Canada. That's where the cash goes," she said..Mian responded to suggestions its decision to get behind the fight in Quebec as a municipality is very unorthodox and responded to questions about whether it's something it should be doing, at all.."There are different ways to show your support. And we've seen municipalities like Ottawa and Toronto and Victoria and Winnipeg, and many other municipalities pledge money of some variety. But what we heard overwhelmingly from Calgarians is don't make a donation on our behalf, if you want to make it possible for us to make a donation in our own private capacities ... please go ahead and facilitate that. And that's what we've done," Mian said.."Calgary is the third most diverse city in Canada. We have so many people. I have elected officials on council who wouldn't even be able to serve if something like this existed in Calgary," she said..The task force uploaded a link to the City's website — a move that was suggested might be inappropriate.."There are dozens and municipalities across Canada that use tax money to do that. I think that's absolutely aligned. But in terms of putting a link on your city website so that people who are interested in this cause can be involved, I think it is definitely a path forward — those who want to get involved in this, they have that option, but are no in no way compelled to do so," Mian said..The Calgary task force engaged stakeholders and consulted them on the issue finding that most said something should be done to challenge the bill, but just not using city tax revenue.."This is where we landed and, you know, I understand you're taking issue with the fact that it's a GoFundMe, but it's a reliable platform and has been used for fundraising of many different things. And so this is the path that we've chosen to go," Mian said..GoFundMe is not at the top of everyone's list as a crowdfunding platform. The platform was used to raise funds for the Trucker Convoy earlier this year in February. After raising almost $10 million dollars from Canadian and international grassroots supporters, the federal government used emergency powers to freeze the funds and deny access to organizers..Mian said that the task force's priority was to find a way to enable Calgarians to support opposition to the bill with a little help from the city.."I think really the most important thing is that there's a mechanism for people to raise money or to give money, We haven't set a specific amount. The important thing is that people who want to donate can donate."
