Saturday, May 18, 2019

Quebec's proposed ban on religious symbols impossible to interpret

It's interesting to think about just how many ways Quebec's Bill 21 could go wrong. I don't mean in terms of turning the Bill into law - François Legault's right-wing Coalition Avenir Québec government seems intent on pushing it through, and they have the vote power in parliament. I mean in terms of policing, enforcing and interpreting the law.
Bill 21 is Quebec's attempt at enforcing secularism in public life, by banning the wearing of religious symbols by public employees (which includes teachers, police officers, court employees, etc). M. Legault insists that this is a "moderate" position to take, and that there a "consensus" in Quebec on the issue (the continuing protests against the Bill suggest otherwise)
Now, I've been an atheist for decades and am all in favour of a secular state, but I'm still not convinced that this is a sensible path (rabbit hole?) for the Quebec government to go down. I can see it proving a major headache for the government for very little positive value, as well as being a significant step down the slippery slope towards discrimination.
For one thing, the Bill does not bother to define what it means by "religious symbol". The usual examples quoted are Muslim hijabs (head coverings of various kinds), Sikh turbans, and the Jewish kippa or yarmulke.
So, a headscarf worn by a Muslim woman would be illegal, but a similar one worn by a Christian or atheist would not? And surely a beard sported by a devout Muslim man is just as much a religious statement as a hijab or burqa (the bill would allow the beard on the grounds that it is "part of the body", which seems a little arbitrary). The same would presumably apply to those weird payots, or curly sidelocks, worn by some Jewish men. But, then, what about a wig worn by a devout Jewish woman?
A Jew wearing a Star of David symbol, would presumably fall foul of the law, as would the Muslim Hamsa or Hand of Fatima, although some would see these as religious symbols, while others would see them as cultural artefacts or merely good luck charms. Similarly, a crucifix or even just a simple cross might be seen as a religious symbol for a born-again Christian or someone of traditional Italian descent, but not when worn as bling on the chest of a rapper.
The identification of religious symbols is a subjective and arbitrary process, and who will be in charge of determining whether this line in the sand has been crossed? Ultimately, the courts, I suppose, so Quebec needs to brace itself for a whole load of expensive and time-consuming court cases over this (really pretty unimportant, in the scheme of things) issue, which only actually applies to a tiny minority of individuals. Is this really the hill that the province of Quebec has chosen to die on?

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