Globe and Mail: Quebec bans face covering in public services, raising worries among Muslims
Quebec has adopted a law that will force people to show their faces when taking the bus or borrowing a book from the library, pushing ahead with legislation that is being criticized for targeting Muslim Canadian women.
Bill 62, which the Justice Minister described as a North American first, requires one's face to be uncovered when giving or receiving public services. The law marks the outcome of a contentious, decade-long debate about the place of religious minorities in Quebec.
Details of how the law would apply have yet to be worked out, but critics are concerned it will empower civil servants such as front-line hospital workers to refuse service to a woman in a niqab or burka.
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WNU Editor: I live in Quebec, and people outside of Quebec do not understand how fiercely nationalistic French Quebecers are. I have seen women use public services and the subway wearing a full burka .... and you can easily sense the hostility among the people when they see this. What is also not healthy is that there are now ghettos in Montreal where Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East have congregated. They are not assimilating, and within these "ghettos" French Quebecers who have lived there for generations feel that they are being squeezed out. There is also a huge political aspect of this story. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau won the election because he garnered the support of many French Quebecers. If he pushes the courts to overturn this law he will be facing a backlash among those who voted for him. So he is faced with a dilemma .... do nothing or lose a good part of his political base. My prediction .... he is hoping that this story will go away with time and that civil liberty groups will pick up the slack and challenge it in the courts.
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