The religious neutrality debate that has split Quebecers since 2007, and that the Liberals have been desperate to avoid, is coming to a head. On Tuesday, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée will launch public hearings into Bill 62, the Liberals’ proposed legislation banning Quebecers from giving or receiving a public service with their faces covered.
Opposition parties at the National Assembly will argue the bill doesn’t go far enough, and, at the very least, people in a position of authority, such as judges, police officers and prison guards, should be forbidden to wear religious symbols at work.
That includes kippahs, turbans and hijabs.
Bill 62 has been lying dormant on the minister’s desk for the last year and a half. It is nearly a carbon copy of the Liberals’ previous Bill 94, which died on the order paper in 2012.
In 2013, the PQ presented its Charter of Quebec Values, which proposed to ban all ostentatious religious symbols from the public service, but ended up sparking a storm of protest in Montreal and Quebec City.
Whether the hearings — which will span four weeks starting Tuesday — will lead to a law that will end the divisive and highly emotional secularism debate once and for all remains to be seen.
Jack Jedwab, the president of the Association for Canadian Studies and Canadian Institute for Identities and Migration, predicted the controversy will not end with Bill 62.
“We’re in these types of debates for the longer term, I think. Unfortunately, they’re a microcosm of things happening globally, they tap into people’s anxieties about terrorism,” said Jedwab, whose 2015 polling shows 61 per cent of Quebecers have rarely or never seen a woman wearing a niqab.
“We’re unable to separate what we need to: the issue of terrorism from the issue of the niqab,” Jedwab said, adding one-third of Quebecers he polled believe measures such as Bill 62 have some effect on reducing terrorism.
When Vallée first tabled the bill in 2015, obtaining the cautious approval of the National Council of Canadian Muslims,she argued: “Public services have to be offered and received with the face uncovered for security, identification and communication purposes.”
But she added citizens can request an accommodation on religious grounds, and the proposed law also presents guidelines to help answer those requests: the person must cooperate in seeking a reasonable solution, the request must be consistent with the right to equality between women and men and it must not compromise the principle of state religious neutrality.
More specifically, when a request for accommodation involves an absence from work, consideration must be given to the following factors: the frequency and duration of absences, the ease with which that person can be replaced, the consequences of the absence on the person’s work and fairness with regard to the working conditions of other staff members, the bill states.
If a reasonable accommodation involves a student, the school board must ensure the request respects the compulsory school attendance principle in the Education Act and the school’s educational mission.
Regarding childcare, the bill says subsidized childcare providers must ensure “children’s admission is not related to their learning a specific religious belief, dogma or practice.”
At least two groups slated to present Tuesday — the federation of general practitioners and MUHC — told the Montreal Gazette they will not be making the trip to Quebec City after all. “The bill codifies existing practices at the MUHC,” Richard Fahey, MUHC director of Human Resources, Communications, Legal Affairs, wrote in a letter. “We thank you for the invitation ... but the priorities of the MUHC’s interim management are keeping us from participating in the hearings.”
On Wednesday, Vallée said there are zero civil servants in Quebec who cover their faces, either with a niqab or burka. But she said she doesn’t know how many Quebecers ask to receive a public service wearing the garments. “There are some, but I don’t have the numbers,” she told reporters, adding she believes the bill will pass the human rights test.
PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée said Friday he is favourable to Bill 62, but he and PQ secularism critic Agnès Maltais will try to convince the government to go farther and at least adopt the recommendations from the Bouchard-Taylor commission.
In 2007, academics Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor toured the province, consulted Quebecers, and the following year recommended the government forbid judges, police officers and prison guards to wear religious signs.
The issue has led to a bitter war of words between Lisée and Premier Philippe Couillard.
Responding to Couillard’s attack he has a “family relationship” with the anti-immigrant “populist parties of Europe,” Lisée said the “good Dr. Couillard” has transformed into “Mr. Hyde, mean-spirited, who sees the world in black and who wants to divide.”
The start of Bill 62 hearings will coincide with Couillard and Lisée’s first duel in the house.
The hearings are expected to kick off Tuesday with health-care professionals. On Wednesday, MNAs should hear from teachers’ unions and school boards. They will be followed by daycares, municipalities, immigrant support groups, women’s associations, unions representing police and civil servants, as well as Taylor and Bouchard.