Teen who seeks to be cop in hijab reopens debate
‘If I have to go to the moon to achieve this I will’
QUEBEC • A young woman who wants to become a police officer and still wear her hijab should be told she has to take it off to work or look for a job with the RCMP, said Agnès Maltais of the Parti Québécois.
The Liberals rapidly branded the statement and similar position taken by the Coalition Avenir Québec as exclusionary and discriminatory.
And they praised the courage of the woman, Sondos Lamrhari, 17, who started studying police science in Montreal this fall.
Her story — featuring photos of her wearing a head covering — exploded on the front page of the Journal de Montréal on Thursday at the same time as the debate over religious symbols is again raging in the National Assembly.
“I want to become a police officer,” Lamrhari told the paper. “If I have to go to the moon to achieve this I will.
“Removing my head covering is like surrendering.”
Opposition politicians used the case to pelt the Liberal government for not having gone further in legislating on religious symbols.
The government, which considers the issue closed, adopted Bill 62, which will oblige public services to be delivered and received with the face visible but it avoids the issue of religious symbols worn by people in authority like police officers.
“I can understand the aspirations of this young woman and I respect them completely,” Maltais told reporters.
“But I remind you of this: a young woman from Gatineau went to the police to denounce her father because he beat her because he refused to let her remove her hijab when she went to school.
“I wonder what this young woman, who had the courage to denounce her father to police, would think if the officer who welcomed her was wearing a hijab.
“Regardless of the very legitimate aspirations of the young woman who wants to become a police officer, I say we, the Parti Québécois, take the side of the potential victims.
“Canada decided to have multiculturalism. We decided to have something else.”
The CAQ had a similar line.
“(This morning’s article) is the concrete translation of what we have been saying for days and which Mr. Couillard qualifies as an imaginary problem,” said Geneviève Guilbault of the CAQ .
“This situation would not happen if the Couillard government had accepted to create a framework on this question once and for all.”
The issue floated back to the surface two weeks ago when Montreal city councillor Marvin Rotrand said officers should be allowed to wear symbols.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said she was open to the idea but also sought guidance from the province. But Premier Philippe Couillard said it’s an issue better dealt with by mayors and the police forces themselves.
Thursday, on their way into a meeting of the Liberal caucus, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée and Status of Women Minister Hélène David criticized Maltais and the CAQ .
“We are proud of this woman,” David told reporters. “She wants to be a police officer. Bravo. I say it publicly today: I hope you stay, I hope you will be able to practise your trade, which is to be a police officer.”
“It’s sad to hear this on the part of the opposition,” said Vallée. “It’s sad to block the dreams of a determined young woman, born here, who wants to integrate into a non-traditional employment.
“We want you to leave society. That is the message of the CAQ, that is the message of the PQ . That’s why (when we adopted Bill 62), we did not retain the view of the opposition, which asked us to ban the wearing of religious symbols by persons in authority.
“Why? Because there are judges who wear religious symbols. There are judges who wear the kippah. My colleague (D’Arcy McGee MNA David Birnbaum) wore the kippah in the house yesterday. Is this a problem? Not at all.”