Alberta’s premier says Quebec legislation that bans people from providing or receiving public services with their faces covered represents a “sad day for Canada.”
The controversial religious neutrality bill passed on Wednesday and will apply even while riding the bus.
Bill 62 has been criticized for targeting Muslim women.
Watch below: Montrealers stood with their faces covered in front of bus shelters to protest the province’s controversial religious neutrality bill. Global’s Phil Carpenter reports.
READ MORE: Quebec’s religious neutrality bill passes with a vote of 66-51
Notley says she suspects the legislation doesn’t meet the values that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is intended to protect.
She says Alberta takes pride in celebrating diversity and the ban isn’t the sort of thing Canadians would support.
“The passage of that bill is a sad day for Canada. I think that it is damaging for marginalized women and it’s very unfortunate,” Notley said Friday after receiving an award from Equal Voice, a national organization dedicated to electing more women in Canada.
“The only way it holds together logically is if you’re in some way trying to move forward with some element of Islamophobia and that’s not who we are as Canadians.”