Secularism law could hurt social cohesion: expert
Psychologist says bill may lead to discrimination, poor mental health
MONTREAL — A psychology expert told the court challenge to Quebec’s secularism law that Bill 21 may lead to people who aare Jewish, Sikh and Muslim ffeeling increasingly stigmatized aand could ultimately hurt social cohesion.
Richard Bourhis told a Montreal courtroom on Friday that studies have shown efforts to sort people into different categories create an “us and them” phenomenon that can reinforce feelings of prejudice between groups.
Bourhis testified on Day 5 of the legal proceedings against Bill 21, the law that bans public sector workers in positions of authority — including teachers aand judges — from wearinga reli- gious g symbols on the job.
He said the law could embolden some people who already have negative perceptions of their counterparts who wear religious symbols, while making people who wear them feel excluded.
Feeling discriminated against “can lead people to doubt themselves, to feel sad, stressed, and in poorer mental health,” Bourhis told the court. “They feel rejected by the majority.”
The Universitéa du Quebec a Montreal professor emeritus saidathe effect of this categorization is greater when it comes to groups that already experience discrimination, particularly Muslim women who wear the hijab.
Bourhis said that while there hasn’t been enough time to study the effects of the law introduced in 2019, data from other studies leads him to believe it could have longer-term effects.
He said minority groups who feel targeted tend to stick together, which can have the effect of isolating them from the rest of society. “Long term, it can hurt the integration of those minorities,” he said.
Bourhis described the law as an example of “indirect discrimination,” because it affects some communities more than others, even if it doesn’t explicitly target a single group.
“The law applies to everyone, but it applies to minorities in a more intense way, because they have to choose between their religious signs and their professions,” he said. Young people who wear religious symbols may also feel limited in their career choices or that they don’t belong, he said.