Politician wants ban on religious clothing

[chseeads]

Politician wants ban on religious clothing

Sep 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Lia Levesque
The Canadian Press

ST-JEROME, Que.–A former Conservative MP is urging Quebec to ban all religious clothing, such as the face-covering niqab, in public places, a hearing was told yesterday.

Lise Bourgault, now mayor of Brownsburg-Chatham northwest of Montreal, delivered that message to the commission looking into the reasonable accommodation of immigrants.

"We're going to have to stand up and prohibit the wearing of all religious clothing in public places," said Bourgault, who served as MP in Argenteuil-Papineau in southwestern Quebec between 1984 and 1993.

"I know it's going to take a lot of political courage to get there.

"It's time to reopen the charters," she said, referring to the provincial and federal charters of rights and freedoms.

Bourgault touched on a theme the commission has heard many times since it began public hearings this month – a distaste for public displays of religion and concern about how it can undermine equality between men and women.

She used the example of the niqab, worn by a small minority of Muslim women, as a display of religion in public.

She also mentioned "submissive women who are behind their husbands."

The commission also heard that a made-in-Quebec constitution would help immigrants adapt to the French-speaking province.

Line Chaloux of the organization Le Coffret, which works with immigrants, said a constitution that includes equality between men and women and promotes secularism would help them adapt.

"With a constitution, we could develop in a much more definite way family rights, equality between men and women which is fundamental," she said.

"When we work with people who have a problem with integration, it's because they don't understand the values we have are non-negotiable."

Chaloux said Quebec's values regarding the place of women and their power to make decisions within their relationship – for themselves and their children – must be defended and not weakened.

The hearings are being held throughout Quebec by Gérard Bouchard, the brother of former premier Lucien Bouchard, and by philosopher Charles Taylor.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/260611