Liberals to study ban on face coverings
Quebec appears headed again toward a bitter debate over religious clothing, with government house leader Jean-Marc Fournier confirming Monday that Liberal legislation banning face coverings from the public sector will be studied by MNAs this fall.
Bill 62 is almost an exact copy of the Charest Liberals’ Bill 94, which died on the order paper in 2010. It stipulates that employees of public bodies must exercise their functions with their faces uncovered, and that people receiving a public service must also have their faces uncovered.
Employees of public bodies must “demonstrate religious neutrality in the exercise of their functions being careful to neither favour nor hinder a person because of the person’s religious affiliation or non-affiliation,” the bill states.
The rules would not apply to municipal workers.
Fournier told reporters that the National Assembly’s committee on institutions is ready to get to work on the bill.
“Our intention is to ask opposition parties to accept a law that makes the consensus,” he said. “We had Bill 94 before the house for two years because other parties were making a veto, they were saying, ‘No, it’s our way or the highway.’ Now what we’re saying is, ‘We had enough time on that, now it’s time to decide if we can agree to have a law on the consensus, the consensus is having people’s faces uncovered.”
It appeared to be a hard sell on Monday.
Representatives from all three opposition parties argued the bill doesn’t go far enough. PQ MNA Agnès Maltais said it would allow, for example, Muslim women wearing the chador to keep delivering and receiving public services. A chador, an “oppressive piece of clothing,” she said, wraps around the head and upper body leaving only the face exposed.
“It’s one of the problems we’ve raised in the past. We’ll listen to what the government has to say on that,” Maltais said, adding she also wants the principle of state neutrality to be enshrined in the law.
“If the state is neutral, it has to show,” said Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Nathalie Roy. “Since 2006, the Liberals have been sweeping under the rug the problem of unreasonable accommodations.”
In 2008, the Bouchard-Taylor commission recommended a ban on religious symbols for people in a position of authority, like judges, prison guards and police officers.
The PQ’s Charter of Quebec Values in 2013 went further, proposing a ban on all ostentatious items like kippahs, turbans, hijabs or niqabs from the public service. The charter is believed to have contributed to the PQ’s electoral defeat in 2014.
More recently, PQ leadership hopeful Jean-François Lisée said he would consider banning burkas and niqabs from the public space for “security reasons.” He argued police and surveillance cameras are not able to identify people wearing the garments.
“The debate began in 2007,” said Québec solidaire co-leader Françoise David. “Yes, people have sometimes gone too far ... with remarks that were populist, xenophobic and intolerant. “I can only hope that the debate will be constructive.”