PQ blasts Liberals for stance on chador
The Liberal government is feeling the heat from the opposition for not banning religious symbols outright in the public sector, a decision that could in theory allow an employee to wear a chador on the job.
A chador covers the body head to toe but leaves an oval for the face to be visible.
But the Liberals fired back that the Parti Québécois is on a slippery slope trying to lecture the government after its own disastrous attempt to legislate on the issue through the failed Bill 60, which would have applied its charter of values.
And Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée said the whole chador debate is hypothetical anyway since not a single member of the 500,000-strong Quebec public service dresses this way.
One day after Vallée tabled Bill 62 on state neutrality, the opposition was on the attack about a key point: the chador.
Although the proposed legislation states that public services have to be given and received without the face being covered, it does not specifically ban the chador, or any other religious symbols, for that matter.
During its last mandate in 2014, the PQ wanted to ban all conspicuous religious symbols from the public sector including turbans and kippahs.
On Thursday, it was PQ secularism critic Agnès Maltais who reminded MNAs that in January 2014 Philippe Couillard, before he became premier, said the chador, like the niqab and the burka, should be banned for state employees.
The comment came during the war of words between him and departing MNA Fatima Houda-Pepin, when Couillard called the chador a symbol of women’s oppression and exclusion and social withdrawal.
Today, it’s being treated like another piece of clothing, Maltais said.
“This (bill) is a major step backwards and is totally unacceptable,” she fired across the floor at Vallée and Couillard during question period Thursday.
She said Couillard himself said in the past he had first hand knowledge of what the chador is because of the years he spent working in Saudi Arabia.
“I am astonished that the government is allowing public service workers to wear the chador,” Maltais said.
But the Liberals stuck to their line that they are not going to legislate clothing issues, with Vallée explaining the bill also includes guidelines for reasonable accommodations that ensure the equality of men and women and respect for the neutrality of the state.
Earlier, in an interview with radio host Paul Arcand, Vallée bobbed and weaved around the issue without answering what would happen if someone actually did want to work in such clothing.
“You are asking me to legislate on a hypothesis,” Vallée said, struggling in her interview.
In the house, however, she fired back at the PQ, saying they should be ashamed of themselves because their old Bill 60 would have “excluded many women” from the public sector because of its sweeping ban on conspicuous religious garb.
“Today they stand up and try to give the impression they want to preserve the equality of men and women ... but Bill 60 foresaw unprecedented methods of exclusion and discrimination, not only toward women but many other citizens of Quebec,” Vallée said.
“So the PQ should hold off on its moralizing.”
But on her way into question period, Vallée told reporters the chador is not necessarily the tool of oppression it has been made out to be for all.
“The chador for many people constitutes a symbol of oppression of women, the woman who is forced to wear the chador,” Vallée said. “But there are women who wear it voluntarily and this we also have to respect.
“It’s not up to us to determine and judge people. We have a bill that aims to put a framework for religious accommodations. They are clear and defined ... This is what’s important.”
But PQ leader Pierre Karl Péladeau and Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault said the bill does not go far enough with Legault offering to sit down with Couillard to apply the 2008 Bouchard-Taylor formula for religious accommodations.
That formula would have banned people in positions of authority — such as judges and police officers — from wearing religious symbols.
Couillard, however, rebuffed Legault’s offer, noting off the top that judges are independent of the legislature so the Bouchard-Taylor formula wouldn’t work. The Liberals actually don’t believe any ban on clothing would pass muster with the courts.
Couillard added that elementary democracy teaches us that the majority needs to be careful about its treatment of minorities.
“If we want to restrain the freedoms of people, as my colleagues ask, it has to be supported by a real situation,” Couillard said. “There is not a single police officer wearing any of the things he has described in Quebec today.
“There has to be urgency, the situation has to be proportional to the problem and nothing he has said responds to these criteria.”