Fundamental Rights: Quebec

Quebec: Since the proposal was published, all three opposition parties in the National Assembly have deplored its attack on the fundamental rights of religious minorities. Quebecs largest union federation, the three main candidates for mayor of Montreal, the mayors of the 15 other municipalities on the island of Montreal, a prominent Bloc Qu b cois MP expelled from the tiny BQ caucus Thursday , a major teachers union, the F d ration des femmes du Qu bec have all come out publicly against that part of the charter. So has a group of prominent separatist intellectuals, according to The Star. The media often exaggerated the facts and gave the impression that such cases were common. Sometimes, they illustrated their stories about Muslims with pictures of women wearing a burka or a niqab, using photographs taken in the Middle East since there are practically no women dressed in the all-covering garments in Montreal and Seen from outside Quebec, it may seem that the proposal to forbid government workers from wearing ostentatious religious symbols is another example of Quebecers supposed xenophobia. Before I denounce the so-called charter of Quebec values, which I called the charter of shame in an editorial published in La Presse Wednesday morning, let me underline that a very large number of Quebecers from all walks of life, including a significant number of separatists, are categorically opposed to the Marois governments policy on that front. Many are, as I am, worried and sad. This is not the Quebec I know, they sigh. As in all societies, our province has its share of prejudiced and ignorant people. In Quebec in the last seven or eight years, those peoples fears of strangers have been exacerbated by a few cases where members of minority confessions have benefited from what seemed to many to be unreasonable arrangements workers enjoying additional days off for religious holidays, others demanding for a driving instructor of their own sex, others yet asking for separate public pool hours for men and women, etc. . (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.