Bouchard doesn’t share Taylor’s change of heart on religious symbols
Less than a week after half of the Bouchard-Taylor commission announced he had experienced a change of heart when it came to a ban on religious symbols worn by public servants in positions of “coercive” authority, the other half has made it clear such a ban remains absolutely necessary.
Quebec sociologist Gérard Bouchard, who co-chaired a 2007 commission on reasonable accommodation of cultural communities with McGill philosophy professor Charles Taylor, told Le Devoir this week he’s disappointed with Taylor’s decision Monday to publicly disavow the ban, which would apply to judges and police and was a centrepiece of the report the pair tabled in 2008.
In an interview with the Frenchlanguage daily, Bouchard challenged Taylor’s assertion that abandoning such a ban would calm the debate over Quebec secularism, arguing the opposite would occur.
“The debate will resume and resemble what we’ve had for the past 15 years, which has been very emotional,” Bouchard is quoted as saying, adding that he is saddened to see a chance to finally settle the issue lost. “We’re back at Square One, and I don’t see when the stars will realign ... It was exceptional that three out of four parties (at the Quebec National Assembly) were ready (to compromise) in order to reach an agreement (on the issue of religious symbols in the public service).”
Bouchard’s comments follow the publication last Monday of an open letter in La Presse from Taylor.
Taylor wrote that he was never entirely in favour of the ban and appealed for reconciliation between all sectors of Quebec society in the wake of last month’s attack on a Quebec City mosque. Bouchard is expected to post his own open letter on the issue tomorrow.