The Quebec government seems to be considering some rather disturbing policies with respect to religion. In the same article of a local newspaper I read about two plans (one imminent, one proposed) that seem heavy-handed and pointless. The first policy involves a proposed ban on public employees (such as teachers and doctors) from wearing religious symbols including hijabs and skullcaps. Apparently following in the footsteps of France, this policy is described as addressing a gender issue because such symbols promote female submission which is unacceptable for such public employees. Ridiculous. It’s clearly an infringement on the right to practice one’s religion. The thing about symbols, especially religious ones, is that they often have multiple meanings and many people, Muslims included, wouldn’t reduce the wearing of a hijab as a simple show of female submission. I suppose banning a male headcovering (i.e. a skullcap) prevents the display of male superiority, then? Honestly, some people need to spend their time doing useful things other than garbage like this.
The second thing which is slated to start next fall is a mandatory class on ethics and religion for grades 1 through 11. I find this disturbing because I firmly believe it is the parent’s role to instill ethics and demonstrate their religious beliefs to their children, not a third party. The potential for abuse and misinformation is enormous, considering children are required to take this type of education starting at age 6. As a parent who holds religious beliefs I find this rather ominous. One wonders what the motivation is, who has designed the syllabus and what information will be covered. Having a philosophy/ethics/world religion course in high school, at which age students are (or should be) capable of independent research and having a reasoned discussion is one thing, but 11 years of “Quebec brand ethics” is something else altogether. One wonders what kind of ethical dilemmas these 6 year old children will be discussing. “Don’t hit?” “Share with others?” It’s not necessary to have a class about this. As for the overview of religions, this can be taught to young children through a simple book “This is a Bhuddist monk, here is a Synagogue” etc. Oh, but don’t expect to see “Here is Amil, she wears a hijab” if the Quebec Coalition on the status of Women has their way. Talk about mixed messages.
On the other hand, this whole veil/voting issue is ridiculous to the other extreme. Nobody should be allowed to vote without proper visual identification. If the full face veil issue is as important as it is made out to be, a woman working at the polling station can go behind the voting booth with the voter in question and verify their identity without the voter exposing her face to men. Or introduce the iris recognition technology used for the Canpass Air program. There is simply no need to create an exception to the law over this.
Two governments, two silly policies at opposite ends of the spectrum which are detrimental to all of us.
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