Quebec's Human Rights Commission is too white and too French: Fo Niemi

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebecs-human-rights-commission-is-too-white-and-too-french-fo-niemi?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1539131765

The head of a rights advocacy centre on racial discrimination is sounding the alarm about what he calls a lack of diversity in Quebec’s Human Rights Commission.

Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, said Tuesday he was concerned about the resignation of the last commissioner whose mother tongue is English.

Niemi said he recently learned of the actions of Richard Janda, who sent a letter of resignation to the National Assembly several weeks ago. He was the third commissioner to resign so far this year, Niemi said. The letter has not been made public, and Janda has so far declined to comment on the reasons for his departure. However, that leaves the commission with three vacant seats, out of five, for matters relating to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the two remaining are both white francophones, according to Niemi.

Chris Selley: Quebec steps into the past with bill aimed at ending ‘reasonable accommodations’ debate

Bill 21 absolutely will not put the debate to bed. But if there is hope of stopping this bastardized secularism, it’s with Quebec’s impudent youth

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-quebec-steps-into-the-past-with-bill-aimed-at-ending-reasonable-accommodations-debate

Well, here it is then. Here’s the grand compromise that Quebec Premier François Legault hopes will put to bed the province’s decade-plus debate over what religious people should be allowed to wear, and in what circumstances. Bill 21, tabled Thursday in the National Assembly, bans religious symbols from civil servants in positions of authority including police officers, bankruptcy registrars, government-appointed arbitrators, Crown prosecutors and other lawyers arguing government cases, members of myriad boards and agencies and also, crucially — and which was not recommended by the Bouchard-Taylor Commission — elementary and secondary teachers, vice-principals and principals.
It absolutely will not put the debate to bed.
There is no reason to believe the people who pushed for the strictest possible regulations won’t continue to push. Notably, teachers in publicly subsidized private schools, public daycare workers and before-and-after-school caregivers are exempt.
Bill 21 is actually more generous to niqab-wearing women than the previous Liberal government’s Bill 62: Bill 62 required an uncovered face to receive government services, period; Bill 21 only does so when it’s necessary for identification or security. It is a safe bet that such nuances will not filter down to the sorts of people who take photos of women in niqabs shepherding toddlers around town, or riding the bus, or otherwise living their lives, and pitch them into the racist frenzy of social media. That’s going to get some media coverage.

Opinion: School boards are an existential question for anglophones

No 'service centre' plucked from the imagination of some bureaucrat is going to fit the bill. 

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-school-boards-are-an-existential-question-for-anglophones?fbclid=IwAR0f372hfKyF7uF9rdaGi_LcPir8DKxciqFX6LYL7gWXqNOdduHYaXIcMfs

What association would the courts make between the existing school board and the government’s proposed service centre? The determination of Education Minister Jean-François Roberge to replace the former with the latter, coupled with the unavailability of the notwithstanding clause in matters of minority education rights, means we may soon find out.

The third-way politics of Premier François Legault and his stated desire to unite Quebecers after decades of division might yet give him pause, assuming that anglophones, too, are part of the plan for “national” reconciliation. There is precedent. The Couillard government climbed down from the ledge after the entreaties of the Quebec English School Boards Association, the anglophone lobby in education matters. But the Quebec Liberals are heavily doped on the anglophone vote. The Coalition Avenir Québec formed a strong majority government without it ...

Quebec’s proposed secularism law is repugnant. Here are six reasons why.

Michael Coren: Faith should never guarantee a place in the public square, but nor should it disqualify someone, anyone, from participation

https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/quebecs-proposed-secularism-law-is-repugnant-here-are-six-reasons-why/

Next week I finish my Masters of Divinity degree at Trinity College, University of Toronto. For three years I’ve been studying the form, history, foundation, politics, language and philosophy of religion. I’ve mixed with people of almost all faiths, discovered much from and about them, and also been strengthened on my own religious path.
The academic study of religion does not make one naïve or credulous, and much as I love God, I’m extremely aware of the horrors committed, historically and in our own age, in the deity’s name. I also believe in the separation of church and state, which when implemented properly should benefit and protect both institutions. But the Quebec government’s proposed secularism law is repugnant and dangerous.
The Coalition Avenir Québec’s law will prevent public workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols such as a hijab, kippa or turban so as to, it claims, ensure “a balance between the collective rights of the Quebec nation and human rights and freedoms.”

Quebec's face-covering law suspended for second time, with judge citing rights concerns

Section 10 of Quebec's law on religious neutrality, passed in October 2017, forces everyone to show their faces when receiving or giving a public service

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/quebec-judge-once-again-suspends-application-of-provinces-face-covering-law

MONTREAL — Quebec’s law banning people from covering their faces when receiving or giving a public service cannot enter into force until it goes through judicial review because of the irreparable harm it will cause Muslim women, a judge ruled Thursday.

It is the second time since December a Quebec judge has suspended the controversial section of the province’s religious neutrality law, which is being challenged in court by a national Muslim group and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Khalid Elgazzar, Vice-Chair of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the ruling by Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc-Andre Blanchard was “very strongly worded.” ...

What's in Quebec's secularism bill: Religious symbols, uncovered faces and a charter workaround

We've highlighted key points in the bill, tabled on Thursday by the CAQ government

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-laicity-secularism-bill-1.5075547

The Quebec government has tabled its long-awaited secularism bill, laying down proposed ground rules it says will ensure the religious neutrality of the state.
Bill 21, entitled "An Act respecting the laicity of the State," is 16 pages long. Here are some key points and passages:
The preamble to the bill explains the Coalition Avenir Québec government's motivation. The Quebec nation, it says, "has its own characteristics, one of which is its civil law tradition, distinct social values and a specific history that [has] led it to develop a particular attachment to state laicity."

English Montreal School Board will let teachers wear religious symbols

The English Montreal School Board will not enforce a law that would ban teachers or other employees from wearing religious symbols at work.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/english-montreal-school-board-will-let-teachers-wear-religious-symbols

The English Montreal School Board adopted a resolution Wednesday declaring its refusal to enforce any law that prohibits its teachers and other employees from wearing religious symbols on the job.
“The Quebec government has stated its intent to propose legislation to prohibit the wearing of religious symbols for all persons in a position of authority, including teachers,” said EMSB chairman Angela Mancini. “We believe in the secularity of the state while still supporting an individual’s right to freedom of religion.”
In 2014, the EMSB declared it would not implement the measures outlined in the former Parti Québécois government’s charter of values, and in a resolution approved by commissioners at Wednesday’s council meeting, the board indicated it will take the same stance against the Coalition Avenir Québec’s proposed law.

Religious symbols: CAQ 'convinced we have found the right balance'

Big or small, the size of the symbol doesn't matter because all symbols of all faiths are banned in the CAQ's newly tabled secularism bill.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/religious-symbols-quebec-to-table-secularism-bill-caq-will-propose-moving-crucifix

QUEBEC — Amid accusations it is legalizing discrimination, the Legault government Thursday defended its new secularism bill as a balanced, human proposal that is entirely within its power to adopt as a province within the Canadian federation.
And the minister responsible for Bill 21, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said he expects groups threatening to not respect the legislation to conform to what will be the new law of the land.
“Listen, I think people are reasonable,” Jolin-Barrette, the minister of immigration, diversity and inclusiveness said at a news conference after tabling the bill. “I am convinced people targeted by the bill will respect the law.”

Macpherson: A call to 'extinguish' minority dissent in Quebec

Quebec's most-read daily publishes a column denouncing "enemies," which its author admits might be used by the "violently prejudiced."

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/macpherson-a-call-to-extinguish-minority-dissent-in-quebec?fbclid=IwAR25Ozl5T756sKLPQvCK_mVLEFBkVzt7BdCI8TqvKZlK_NPM30iO1B091ts

A denunciation of members of minorities who complain of their treatment in Quebec as “enemies … of French-speaking Quebec.”

With it, a call to “extinguish these hotbeds of intolerance,” in a message the writer acknowledges might be used by the “hotheaded and violently prejudiced.”

Just another rant from someone in the online hate community hiding behind a pseudonym, exceptional only for its lack of spelling mistakes?

No, a column published in Quebec’s most-read daily and on its website, and promoted on the province’s most popular television network, all properties of Pierre Karl Péladeau’s Québecor media empire.

Quebec's attempt to gather info on what teachers wear violated charter rights, union says

'When there is rule of law in Canada, you should not have to choose between your faith and your job,' FAE says

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-fae-charter-religious-symbols-1.5071864

A labour federation representing Quebec teachers is taking legal action against the provincial government for its attempt to track how many teachers wear a religious symbol such as a hijab or kippa.
The Fédération autonome de l'Enseignement (FAE), which represents 43,000 teachers in the public school system, argues in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the move violated Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
The government tried twice to collect that information — once under the CAQ, in January 2019, and once under for the former Liberal government, in June 2018, the FAE said.