Quebec Premier Pauline Marois received a ringing endorsement from the leader of the country that inspired the province’s proposed legislation to ban religious symbols from the public sector.
French President François Hollande said his country’s strict and long-standing adherence to the separation of church and state has allowed French residents from all different backgrounds to get along.
“Secularism is a principle that allows us to live together and, of course, to respect each others convictions and religions,” Hollande said following a meeting with Marois at the French Presidential Palace, according to La Presse.
France, which first legislated state secularism in 1905, banned Muslim headscarves in schools in 2004.
“We passed this law, which has existed since 2004 and which has been wholly accepted and which, today, is not up for discussion. I don’t have any lessons for other countries, but I am able to give this example.”
The so-called values charter proposed by Marois’ Parti Québécois would prohibit all those who draw a salary from the public purse from wearing conspicuous symbols of their faith in the workplace. It would apply to doctors, teachers, daycare workers, nurses, university professors and bureaucrats alike. The legislation will be put to a parliamentary commission in January where the hearings will likely result in a rehash of the passionate arguments that have divided Quebec since word of the initiative first leaked out in late August.
Marois has defended the proposition as a way to bolster Quebecers’ common values against what her government argues is an increasing, and increasingly unreasonable number of requests for religious exemptions from secular norms in the workplace, in schools, or in society.
“I’m listening to you, François and it’s incredible,” Marois said. “I swear that I didn’t put these words in his mouth but they are exactly the same ones that I use in Quebec when we speak about our proposition.”
The Quebec premier said her meeting with Hollande, which also touched on issues such as free trade between Canada and the European Union, left her “inspired” to push ahead with the values charter.
But critics of the PQ bill will likely pay more attention to the series of reports that have come out in France recently recommending an overhaul of government measures to integrate immigrant populations who often have trouble settling in and finding work in the country.
Among the suggestions — which were quickly dismissed by the ruling Socialist government — was a reversal of the ban on religious symbols in schools, a push to teach Arabic and African languages and the changing of street and place names to better reflect the mix of cultures represented in modern-day France.