About 75 opponents to the proposed Parti Québecois charter of Quebec values gathered on Sunday afternoon for a rally at Place Jacques Cartier, many wearing the very religious symbols and garb the charter would prohibit: skullcaps, hijabs and turbans on their heads and large crosses around their necks.
They wore them as a gesture of solidarity: Several of the women who donned brightly coloured hijabs don’t wear one ordinarily, for instance, the men in turbans were not Sikh and some of the men wearing skullcaps, like John Lesnik, were not Jewish.
Lesnik said he came to the rally, organized by a group called Support Another, because he believes in freedom of religious expression.
Organizer Sama Al-Obaidy urged people to wear these religious symbols on Monday while at work or school or out shopping “as an avenue to promote dialogue” and a way to “encourage people to ask questions and not judge.”
(The event brought to mind the actions of Concordia University professor Nora Jaffary, who is not Muslim but started to wear a hijab at work the day after the PQ tabled Bill 60 on Nov. 7, both in solidarity and to register her opposition to the bill.)
Hearings on Bill 60 begin on Tuesday at the National Assembly. About 250 briefs have been submitted by groups and individuals wanting to be heard.
The mood was fairly bright at the hour-long rally, with urns of hot chocolate available, women who know how to put on the hijab helping those who don’t, and people chatting to one another about Quebec, their place here and their objections to Bill 60.
Among those present were representatives of the Facebook group Canadians for Coexistence: “Canada was built by the hard work of our blended population,” its mission statement reads in part. “The influx of different racial groups is what makes us a vibrant and exciting nation.”
“We shouldn’t care what is on a person’s head, but what is in it,” said the group’s Norma O’Donnell, wearing an outsized wood cross around her neck. “It shouldn’t matter if someone has arrived recently or has ancestors who came in the 16th century: We are all equal.”
O’Donnell said she opposes the proposed charter on the grounds “it strips away our basic rights and freedoms.” She and Joanne Scullion are nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital and both said they have colleagues who wear religious symbols. One, a Sikh doctor who wears a turban, has said publicly he will leave if Bill 60 becomes law.
There were accounts at the rally by women who described being attacked, organizer Al-Obaidy among them. The 27-year-old business analyst said she was attacked on the métro five weeks ago by a woman who tried to tear her hijab off. The woman made three attempts as Al-Obaidy defended herself; ultimately, her hijab remained in place, although beads were ripped from it.
Hanadi Saad of the group Justice Femme said she’d come to the rally “to stand up for our rights. Bill 60 is calling for hate and discrimination,” she said. Speaking to Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville, who is steering the proposed charter, at a public meeting last fall, Saad described being attacked at a shopping centre and having her hijab torn from her head and being insulted and called names. She called Bill 60 “xenophobic” and “islamophobic” and told Drainville that, in the 25 years she has lived here: “I have never been ashamed of Quebec in the way I am now.” Support Another, Canadians for Coexistence and Justice Femme are all on Facebook.