Religious-Symbols Ban in Quebec Draws Sharp Rebuke From Trudeau

(Bloomberg) -- Police officers, teachers and public prosecutors will be barred from wearing head scarves, crosses and other religious symbols under a proposed Quebec law that revives a fraught debate in Canada.

The state secularism bill introduced Thursday targets public servants “in positions of authority” while exempting existing employees. It drew harsh criticism from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but will likely pass easily under Premier Francois Legault, who won a majority government in the largely French-speaking province after campaigning on the issue last fall.

Religious accommodation has been a divisive topic for years. Critics say the bill discriminates against minorities in a province already bruised by Islamophobic incidents, including an attack on a mosque that killed six people two years ago.

Legault’s government argues the bill is balanced and part of a shift away from religion that started in the 1960s. It also proposed removing the crucifix that hangs in the provincial legislature, a reminder of the Catholic Church’s historic influence in Quebec.

“Every society moves at its own pace, in its own image and according to its own values,” Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette told reporters after unveiling the bill. “Quebec has gotten to this point: Formally writing into law that the state and religion are separate.”

Notwithstanding Clause

The legislation is reminiscent of France’s century-old law on secularism and sets Quebec apart from the rest of Canada. It gives no description of what a religious symbol is but lists professions covered by the ban. To avoid potential legal challenges under the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the provincial government invoked a constitutional override known as the “notwithstanding clause.”

Quebec’s bill also adds to tension with the federal government over immigration. Legault plans to cut the number of newcomers allowed into the province by 20 percent, to 40,000 a year, saying a slower pace of arrivals will allow them to better integrate into society. Trudeau’s government, however, is bringing more workers into Canada to help make up for the wave of retiring baby boomers.

“It’s unthinkable to me that in a free society we would legitimize discrimination against citizens based on their religion,” Trudeau told reporters in Halifax before the bill was unveiled Thursday. The Charter of Rights is part of Trudeau’s family legacy, introduced when his father Pierre Trudeau was prime minister in the 1980s.

Quebec set up a commission in 2007 to discuss the “reasonable accommodation” of religious and ethnic minorities. In 2013, the Parti Quebecois government proposed a Charter of Values that would have banned state employees from wearing religious attire. The separatist party lost power the following year to the Liberals, who passed a law forcing Quebeckers to uncover their faces in order to receive public services. It was never enforced because of legal challenges but its content is now part of the new government’s bill.

Political Base

Support for the restrictions tends to come from French speakers, especially outside of Montreal, Canada’s second-largest city, according Daniel Beland, director of McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada. That’s also where Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec won the most votes in October.

The bill is a promise the new premier had to keep, having made his intentions “very clear during the campaign, ” Beland said. “There was pressure from his political base to move forward rapidly.”

Religious advocacy groups expressed immediate concerns. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it was “troubled” by the use of the constitutional override, while the Quebec office of the National Council of Canadian Muslims warned the proposed law would “render Quebec Muslims and other minority communities second-class citizens.”

The province “is understandably trying to find a way to deal with an increasingly diverse society while still protecting its distinct Francophone culture,” council spokeswoman Sarah Abou-Bakr said. Legault’s government “cannot claim to protect Quebec’s right to be different while at the same time discriminating against Quebeckers who themselves are different.”

--With assistance from Erik Hertzberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sandrine Rastello in Montreal at srastello@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, Stephen Wicary, Chris Fournier

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