MONTREAL – A day after the much-anticipated and extremely controversial Quebec Charter of Values was tabled (it now can also be called Bill 60), several community groups are even angrier now than they were before – especially after many of the exemptions.
“All of us somewhere are a minority, whether it be linguistic, cultural, faith-based,” said Sylvia Martin Laforge, of the Quebec Community Groups Network. “It’s divisive, it’s fraught with legal implications.”
Near the top of Martin Laforge’s list of problems with the tabled legislation –which would ban overt religious symbols in the civil service – is what would effectively amount to the abolition reasonable accommodations for religious diets at a daycare (such as eating halal meat), and would expand the definition of “public sector” to include private contractors doing government work.
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But perhaps the greatest potential concern voiced by some is what effect it would have on education and technical industries.
In other words, people worry it would cause ‘brain drain.’
Concordia University President Alan Shepard said recently that he plans on attending government consultations and “defending” the diverse university community there. At the high school level, administrators are hearing concerns from teachers who worry they may have to choose between keeping their job or following their religion.
A Muslim teacher recently told her, “if I take off my hijab, my students will no longer respect me. If I don’t stand up for my own beliefs, how can I expect them to stand up for themselves?”
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