Court battle begins over Quebec secularism law

MONTREAL: A court challenge of Quebec’s secularism law began on Monday with a Muslim woman testifying that the ban on public servants wearing religious symbols at work in the Canadian province derailed her teaching career.

Quebec last year legislated the ban on wearing a crucifix, yarmulke or hijab, as well as enshrined into law a previously adopted rule that denies government services to people wearing face veils.

According to public broadcaster CBC, lead plaintiff Ichrak Nourel Hak testified that the law made her “feel excluded from Quebec society.”

She explained that she’d hoped to work at a public school after graduating from a local university with a teaching degree, but could not because she did not wish to remove her hijab.

Instead, she took a position at a private school.