TROIS RIVIÉRES – Under a Parti Québécois government, civil servants won’t be able to wear a hijab or any other overt religious symbol, but the Catholic crucifix will remain displayed in the National Assembly, the PQ announced on a campaign stop on Tuesday.
In the shadow of a Catholic church and in a school for religious brothers, PQ leader Pauline Marois trotted out her star candidate in Trois Rivières – an immigrant from Algeria, a mainly Muslim northern African country – and announced that if elected, the party will immediately adopt a charter of secularism.
Djemila Benhabib, who came to Quebec in 1997, said that even though there has been a gradual separation of church and state in the province, the party wants to go farther with its “principle of neutrality.”
Get breaking National news
“For us, women’s rights aren’t negotiable,” said Benhabib, who has written widely against Islam. “We want equality for all women and all men, no matter what their origin.”
Marois said the PQ government would adopt the charter as soon as possible after being elected, despite the fact it could violate the right to freedom of religion, protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“If it’s contested, we’ll fight that because we think it’s necessary,” Marois said.
Quebecers, she said, feel they have to compromise their values but the PQ is there for them to “affirm our identity.”
Marois said the charter will put to rest Quebecers’ fears that were stirred up during the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodation in 2007.
Hérouxville, a town not far from where Marois spoke Tuesday, adopted a code of conduct for immigrants at the height of the commission hearings, informing them that polygamy, sex discrimination and honour killings weren’t practised in Quebec.
The PQ charter will also serve to “avoid conflict and misunderstanding,” Marois noted.
Many voters in the region – 95 per cent of whom were born in Quebec – say they don’t identify with Benhabib and won’t vote for her but Marois defends the party’s choice, despite the risk.
“She’s a Quebecer who chose Quebec for the freedom we offer and the equality between men and women here,” she said.
As for the Catholic crucifix remaining in the National Assembly, Marois said it was more a symbol of Quebec’s history.
Comments