Quebec also bans the Islamic veil in nurseries and bans face masks in public services.
The implacable Minister for Secularism justifies the ban on face masks in public institutions «because the pandemic is over and seeing one's face is the basis of human communication.» He has also made it clear «that our institutions are not places of worship.».
Nursery school teacher on the streets of Montreal
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The Quebec government's restrictions on religious symbols show no sign of stopping. After banning the veil from teachers and non-teaching staff, the turn now falls to subsidised nurseries. The Minister of Laicity, Jean-François Roberge, has announced that The workers at subsidised nursery schools can no longer wear visible religious symbols.. It is clear to everyone that the measure particularly affects women who wear headscarf.
The left-wing trade unions say it is very dangerous.
The government's decision has generated immediate opposition among early childhood education unions, who consider that the ban has no pedagogical justification.«There is no possibility of providing religious instruction.», says Anne-Marie Bellerose, president of the sectoral federation, in statements to Montreal Gazette, who argues that the system is already fully secular. Along the same lines, he questions the real impact of the measure: «Does the fact that an educator wears a veil really have any impact on a child's development??»
Trade union representatives also warn of the practical consequences of the reform. They warn that the ban could worsen staff shortages and push workers out of the public system.«People will leave… they'll simply leave the network.», they warn, pointing out that many professionals could opt for the private sector, which is not affected by the regulations. In primary education, the ban on the veil among teaching and non-teaching staff has led to Some 150 women have preferred unemployment to taking off their headscarf for a while to work.
Not even masks are spared because «seeing the face is the basis of human communication.»
The new law also It introduces the requirement to have one's face uncovered in all publicly funded educational settings and any immigration-related services.. The reason is that some women were wearing a niqab made from a hijab and a face mask, or removing their hijab to keep their jobs but using the face mask to conceal their faces. Under the new rule, you will not even be allowed to enter a school or any public institution to carry out business wearing a face mask.
The Minister of Secularism, Jean-François Roberge, justifies the ban in education because «In the education system, it is normal, necessary and obvious that we have to meet face to face, both for the student and the teacher, or during teamwork.», said Roberge.«It is the basis of human communication. That's all..»
In this context, Roberge also explicitly referred to the pandemic to rule out exceptions:«I know it was like that during the pandemic, but that's over now.»With this statement, the government makes it clear that the rule is not limited to religious symbols, but that Establishes a general principle of facial visibility within the public system..
Next target: private schools
So far, the measures promoted by the Minister of Secularism, Jean-François Roberge, have focused primarily on the public education sector and have only affected the private nursery school sector. On behalf of the government, he has already announced that the next step will be extend these restrictions to the entire subsidised private sector, where many of the centres with a Christian, Jewish or Muslim religious identity are concentrated. The idea is to work to implement the measures from next academic year.
To maintain public funding, The centres will have to accept a profound transformation that will relegate religion to the margins of the institution.«, in the minister's own words. For the moment, all that is known is that the idea Religious activities will not be permitted during school hours, nor will students or staff be selected on the basis of their beliefs.. The stated objective is that any religious activity should be carried out as an extracurricular, voluntary activity. Furthermore, Teachers and staff will not be able to wear visible religious symbols, as is already the case in the public sector. In practice, this forces schools to strip their day-to-day activities of religious content if they want to remain within the public system.
When asked whether this amounts, de facto, to the end of state-funded religious schools, Roberge was explicit: They may continue to exist, but «they will have to do so without state funding».». The ambiguity of what the minister has explained has left the sector with serious doubts about the extent to which schools will be able to maintain a coherent religious mission without losing their funding.
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