Québec Politicians Targeting Muslims Again

By Brian Carwana

A provincial election is coming this year in Québec. The current government is unpopular and likely headed for a crushing defeat. What to do? 

Regrettably in Québec, the answer is all-too-familiar: go after Muslims. 

To that end, the Québec government is proposing a new law, Bill 9, that will place new restrictions on those who wear religious garments.

Below we will explore the context and history of this now routine practice of Québec politicians and what it means for religious minorities in the province.

The Marginalization Olympics

Québec politicians over the past decade or so have become almost competitive in showing who can target Muslims more.

At times, it seems like an Olympic sport as they clamour to show who can go the furthest in imposing on the minority group.

An early attempt came in 2013, when the Parti Québecois (PQ) drafted up a Charter of Values that would prohibit the wearing of religious garments by state personnel.

The bill died as an election was called but you might say the games had been declared open as the PQ had shown a path where one claims to bravely and courageously defend Québec “values” by going after a vulnerable minority population.

In 2017, the Liberal government realized they needed to enter this new event.

They are a more multicultural party so they passed a more modest bill that required one to bare one’s face when accessing government services.

In 2019, the new Coalition Avenir Québec government took power and seemed poised to pursue this new sport more vigorously.

To that end, they passed Bill 21 which fulfilled the hopes of the 2013 bill.

It prohibited people who work for the government in positions of authority – teachers, police, judges, government lawyers – from wearing visible religious garments like a hijab, kippah, or turban.

The bill simply legitimizes employment discrimination and has no equivalent in any jurisdiction in North America.

The Québec government knew the bill would run afoul of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms so they invoked the “notwithstanding clause” that allows governments to circumvent citizen’s rights. This is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court of Canada but for the past several years, Bill 21 has denied citizens in the province of the simple right to become a school teacher or a police officer.

More Recent Changes

While Bill 21 has been a real flash point, last year the Quebec government decided they should go further and hence they tabled Bill 94 which extends the prohibitions on religious garments to all staff in a school and not just those in a position of authority.

As a result, janitors, psychologists, cafeteria workers, and even those who are not actually staff (i.e. school volunteers) can not have visible religious garments.

If you’re a Sikh father or Muslim mother who wears a turban or hijab, you cannot volunteer at your child’s school.

It is unclear if a Jewish volunteer who came to talk about the Holocaust would be allowed to wear a kippah.

In addition, the bill forbids staff or students from taking religious holidays off. 

In short, if you are a young hijab-wearing Muslim girl, you will learn from an early age that the government deems it imperative that there never be an adult on the grounds who might look like you.

All of your classmates will know that no one like you is welcomed to contribute to running the school.

And neither you nor your Hindu or Jewish classmate can take off Eid, Diwali or Passover.

Bill 9

This past week, the Coalition government, looking to revive its flagging numbers, has proposed a new bill which does several things:

• It prevents dedicated menus for halal or kosher. Jewish General Hospital in Montreal may be forbidden from offering kosher food. As you’re in hospital, recovering from a grievous injury or surgery, the government insists that you be denied the food your religion permits you to eat. 
• It forbids public prayer in parks, etc.
• It forbids prayer spaces in public institutions such as the prayer room at Concordia University shown in the linked video. Presumably hospitals too will be prevented from having a space where nurses, doctors or even patients and their families can pray. 
• It extends the prohibition on government employees wearing religious garments to include workers at government subsidized daycares.
• It prohibits any symbols used by any terrorist entities. Unfortunately, terrorist groups often adopt regular Islamic symbols like the shahada (declaration of faith) or the Palestinian keffiyeh just as the Ku Klux Klan has historically used crosses. The National Council of Canadian Muslims fears the law might ban routine symbols of Muslim religiosity. 

The bill is being criticized by many disparate groups from the Québec Catholic Bishops to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), the latter claiming the bill violates freedoms that are “cornerstone of any democratic society.” 

The government is again invoking the notwithstanding clause in the new bill, knowing the legislation infringes on people’s rights.

CCLA Executive Director Howard Saper said this shows that the government knows its bill “blatantly violates their fundamental rights” and challenged that “If the Quebec government truly believes that its legislation is justified, it should have the courage to defend it before the courts.”

It’s About the Muslims

These laws address religion generally and we should not minimize that they will impact people from multiple minority traditions.

But the vast majority of press coverage acknowledges that, as columnist Chris Selley notes, when they say religion “roughly 97 per cent of the time they mean Muslims.”

The food laws have wider application but the prayer space rules affect Muslims and the dress issues will impact Muslim women and Sikh men the most.

Cumulatively, these laws impact many religious minorities in Quebec but none more so than Muslim women who wear a hijab or other covering.

To bring the point home, banning prayer spaces might also impact elders in Québec who are often Catholic. Hence, the bill has an exemption for long-term care homes which, despite being public institutions, will be permitted prayer spaces (that of course, are overwhelmingly Catholic).  

Is it Really Countering Extremism?

These laws are often invoked on the grounds of countering extremism. But in truth, they are likely to do the opposite.

People who turn to violent terrorist acts often have many issues going on in their lives but they are often more receptive to extremist language when their group feels legitimately marginalized and targeted.

Creating a sense of belonging is not only kind and just, it also makes everyone safer.

Exclusion is Having an Impact

Research on the earlier Bill 21 showed the bill was negatively affecting Muslim women in particular.

When surveyed, 78% of Muslim women in Québec reported feeling less accepted in the society, 53% had heard prejudicial remarks about Muslims and 47% said they had been treated unfairly by a person in authority.

The lead researcher summarized that the study showed “severe social stigmatization” and “marginalization” of Muslim women with “very disturbing declines in their sense of well-being, their ability to fulfil their aspirations, sense of safety, but also hope for the future.”   

Conclusion

A plural and just society is one that accepts difference.

It is not necessary to approve or affirm everything our neighbours or colleagues do, nor they us, but we accept their right to make their own choices and live their lives (which they, in turn, do for us).

And genuine acceptance must mean they have every right to pursue their careers and to occupy places of authority in society.

A generation is growing up in Québec with the clear message that some of its citizens are lesser than.

Whether that message is directed at you personally or towards the visible minority in your class or workplace, it is a nefarious message that erodes the basis of a just democracy.

We hope the day comes when Québec politicians will consider a different type of competition.

The Olympic games emphasize values of inclusion and belonging. That kind of effort would be wonderful to see. 

(Brian Carwana has a PhD in religion, a business degree, and worked as a strategy consultant. He is the Executive Director of Encounter World Religions where he has been teaching people about ethno-religious communities and facilitating actual “encounters” for  20 years. This article is reprinted with permission of the author and originally appeared on the ReligionsGeek website).