It’s a little surprising to see the Montreal Gazette, in the heart of Canadian liberalism, come out so strongly against the attempts to sneak shari’a law into the Canadian legal system: One law for all.

The idea that Sharia law should be allowed a foothold in Quebec is floating around this month with talk of a proposed meeting between Montreal Muslim Council president Salam Elmenyawi and Justice Minister Jacques Dupuis. Sharia in Canada is a thoroughly bad idea that should be rejected promptly and permanently - along with any other impulse to tailor Canada’s justice system to individual cultures.

The cornerstone of a modern, multicultural nation such as Canada is an impartial legal code that governs everyone equally, no matter what their ethnic origin, religion, sex, race or age. Aside from immigration law, our statutes and regulations apply equally to aboriginals, United Empire Loyalists and the newest refugee claimants.

This equal treatment under the law is at the heart of what it is to be a Canadian. Religious-based laws - Christian, Muslim, Jewish or any other - have no place in our system. The state is the font of justice, and strives mightily, if sometimes imperfectly, to make that justice - from criminal sentencing to child support - uniform. Equality under the law cannot be sub-contracted to religious, or any other, organizations.