Following the votes on the weekend that saw the Coalition Avenir Quebec Government pass its Bill 9 on immigration and Bill 21 on state secularism into law, several local groups shared their concerns about the new legislation with The Record. Guillaume Manningham of Solidarité Populaire Estrie, the group that has been holding public demonstrations and workshops on the premise that the two bills were inherently prejudiced and harmful to a productive and peaceful society, said that although the group is not surprised at the bills being passed, they are concerned about the way the vote took place. “We were expecting this, but it’s worse than we thought,” he said, pointing out that the CAQ refused all proposed amendments to the bills from the opposition parties, including the idea that people who are already in training to become teachers who wear religious symbols could be exempted in the same way that existing teachers are. “What’s more, now they are talking about punitive sanctions to help apply the law; this is not good news.” See full story in the Tuesday, June 18 edition of The Record.