Archive for the ‘Quebec’ Category
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Law 94 is veiled identity politics
By Sana Saeed
Published: 6:00 am
CORRECTION APPENDED
I suppose it’s time to address the rather large and noisy elephant floating between the margins of Aristotle’s lackey.
Law 94.
Just last week, the National Assembly passed a law banning the niqab from such critical public spaces as universities, government offices, daycares, and hospitals receiving government funding. The support for the ban has been strong throughout Canada, with an 80% approval rating according to a survey conducted by Angus Reid. Criticisms have been sparse, coming primarily from an unsure Muslim community, various lawyers, scattered academics, and select university papers.
But the general discussion on this matter has just been a mess, with a near complete avoidance in English-speaking Canada of the question of the role of identity. Given the provincial nature of this legislation, however, I will limit my discussion to Quebec.
As mentioned briefly in an article last month by Sheetal Pathak (“Muslim women don’t need saving from themselves,” Commentary, March 18), the Canadian Muslim community is itself divided on this issue. Unlike the hijab, there’s no real consensus on the status of the niqab. A small minority see it as an obligation – or at the very least, the superior form of the modesty principle prescribed by Islam.
While this debate is legitimate, it’s irrelevant to the issue at hand – the discussion on the matter within the Muslim community needs to move beyond the question of necessity. If there are women who believe it is their religious obligation to wear the niqab while living in North America, then that choice must be respected. (more…)
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
 After demands escalate, woman gets ultimatum: Drop class or headwear
Jonathan Montpetit The Canadian Press
MONTREAL–After months of balancing a woman’s religious beliefs with her desire to learn French, the Quebec government stepped into her classroom to offer an ultimatum: take off the niqab or drop the course.
The woman opted to keep her Islamic face-covering and has filed a human rights complaint against the government.
In a province where the government frequently faces accusations of doing too much to accommodate minorities, these actions have prompted a fair bit of praise.
The woman began taking a French course designed for immigrants at a Montreal college in February 2009 but she refused to remove her niqab while men were present.
The college was initially willing to accommodate her, but eventually balked as her demands escalated.
According to a report in Montreal’s La Presse newspaper, she was allowed to give a presentation with her back to the class and asked men to move so they wouldn’t face each other.
The breaking point occurred when the woman again refused to take off the niqab, though teachers had stressed it was essential they see her face to correct her enunciation and facial expressions.
In what appears to be a highly unusual move, provincial Immigration Minister Yolande James intervened. Officials from her department, acting with the minister’s knowledge, met with the woman to discuss her options. (more…)
Tags: Canada, Niqab Ban, Quebec, Student Posted in Burqa, Canada, Islam, Muslims, Quebec, Security, Terrorism, Women | 1 Comment »
Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
All I have to say about this is the same thing I had to say here: This will cause an international uproar, with mountains of blather about intolerance. Few, if any, in the mainstream media will note how severely the rights of non-Muslims are restricted in Saudi Arabia and in Sharia states in general, and few, if any, will even entertain the notion that France has a right to stand up for its cultural integrity and set some standards accordingly.
“Niqab for Muslim women banned in Canadian province,” from IANS, March 25 (thanks to Block Ness):
TORONTO: After France, Muslim women have been banned from wearing niqab in Canada’s French-speaking Quebec province.A bill tabled Wednesday will not allow government services to women wearing the niqab.
The bill comes after protests triggered by an Egyptian immigrant’s refusal to remove her niqab in her French languages classes in Montreal, forcing the school and the provincial government to throw her out.
The college says the Muslim woman was given the front seat in the class so that all male students sat behind her. She was even allowed to make presentations from the rear of the classroom with her back to the class which had three male and 17 female students.
However, students and the college authorities were shocked when one day the woman asked male students to move away from her and refused to sit with them around a U-table to converse and learn French pronunciation.…
The government last week ordered that every niqab-clad woman must uncover her face to confirm her identity when applying for her medicare card. Wednesday’s bill will be the first such step in North America to curtail any religious dress.
According to the bill, women seeking medical and auto insurance services will have to remove their veil, adding that face coverings will not be tolerated in people’s dealings with government officials.
Speaking to the media, Quebec premier (equal to chief minister in India) Jean Charest said the step was needed for maintaining gender equality and secular character of public institutions.
“This (bill) is a symbol of affirmation and respect – first of all, for ourselves, and also for those to whom we open our arms. This is not about making our home less welcoming, but about stressing the values that unite us.
“An accommodation cannot be granted unless it respects the principle of equality between men and women, and the religious neutrality of the state,” the premier said….
Posted by Robert on March 25, 2010 11:04 AM
Tags: Canada, Niqab Ban, Quebec, Women Posted in Burqa, Canada, Islam, Muslims, Quebec, Security, Terrorism, Women | No Comments »
Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Graeme Hamilton, National Post Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
 A proposed Quebec bill would deny accommodations of religious differences in cases where safety, communications or identification so require.
MONTREAL — Quebec will refuse all government services, including education and non-emergency health care, to fully veiled Muslim women under legislation tabled on Wednesday in the National Assembly.
Jean Charest, the Liberal Premier, said the bill establishing guidelines for the accommodation of religious minorities is aimed at “drawing a line” to demonstrate that gender equality is a paramount Quebec value.
“If you are someone employed by the state and you deliver a service, you will deliver it with your face uncovered,” he told reporters in Quebec City. “If you are a citizen who receives services, you will receive them with your face uncovered.”
The bill applies to not only government departments and Crown corporations but hospitals, schools, universities and daycare centres that receive funding from the province.
The proposed guidelines in Bill 94 follow an uproar this month over the expulsion of a niqab-wearing woman from French courses after she insisted that male students in her class not see her face. Quebec’s Immigration Department tracked her to a second college where she was studying French and had her expelled again because she would not remove her niqab, a veil that leaves open a slit for the eyes. (more…)
Tags: Canada, Islam, Niqab Ban, Quebac, Woman Posted in Burqa, Canada, Islam, Jobs, Niqab Ban, Quebec, Security | 1 Comment »
Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Bill 94 on accommodation; Your face must be bare to work in public sector, get state services
By Kevin Dougherty, Gazette Quebec Bureau
 A Muslim woman wearing a niqab. Under Bill 94, women wearing the niqab will have to reveal their faces to be served in public institutions.
QUEBEC – Quebecers were asked Wednesday to put a new face forward – an uncovered one – as the Charest government announced guidelines on reasonable accommodation that ban the niqab, the Islamic face veil, while allowing the hijab, or head scarf.
Public employees, education and health workers will be required to have their faces uncovered under Bill 94, presented in the National Assembly Wednesday.
Quebec is also lifting the veil on people seeking government services – for example, those who show up looking for student loan information, or trying to cash in a winning lottery ticket at Loto-Québec, a government agency, or challenging a bill at Hydro-Québec.
Students from daycare all the way to university, as well as hospital patients and people consulting a CLSC nurse, must also show their faces.
“Today, the government has taken a determined step to clarify the issue of reasonable accommodation and to affirm Quebec values,” said Premier Jean Charest.
The premier said the ban on face veils would apply to all employees in the public sector, even if they have no contact with the public.
Conseil du statut de la femme president Christiane Pelchat, who wants a ban on religious symbols and would like Quebec to be a secular state, supports this limited measure as a first step.
“I urge the opposition to vote quickly for this,” she told reporters.
But Louise Beaudoin of the Parti Québécois was quick to reply that Bill 94 was “completely empty,” saying it relies on Quebec’s existing Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
Beaudoin said the PQ would propose amendments to the charter so it takes into account “the fundamental values of the Quebec nation, notably the equality of women and men, the primacy of French and the separation of the state and religion.” (more…)
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Canada’s spy service may not be able to get alleged terrorists deported, but the country’s police are finding ways to get them convicted: Said Namouh, an al-Qaeda-inspired Internet propagandist who never fired a bullet or built a bomb, was found guilty yesterday of four offences in a Montreal court.
Mr. Namouh, a 36-year-old immigrant from Morocco, was convicted of conspiring with an Austrian to orchestrate suicide bomb attacks in Europe. He was arrested in 2007 in central Quebec as he prepared to travel to the Middle East to meet with conspirators. The conviction is the latest in a string of victories for a robust criminal-terrorism law.
It’s “a demonstration that the system works, that the police with their counterparts in other countries can stop people before it’s too late,” prosecutor Dominique Dudemaine said.
“The minister of justice at the time [of the law's passage] said, ‘If terrorists get on the plane, it’s too late, we’ve failed.’ ”
The victory for police comes even as Canadian intelligence officials are struggling to get people they suspect of terrorism onto planes out of the country for good. Cases involving security certificates – a Cold-War-era power the federal government uses in its bids to deport foreigners suspected of dangerous activities – are going nowhere as judges and the public grow wary of their spy-world tactics and their secret evidence.
The newest tool in Canada’s counterterrorism arsenal is a police power, the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act, which created a range of new criminal offences and requires authorities to prove their charges beyond a reasonable doubt in open court.
That approach appears to be paying dividends. The case against Mr. Namouh is the third prosecuted under the ATA, after the 2008 conviction of a bomb-builder, Ottawa’s Momin Khawaja, along with four young extremists convicted so far in the ongoing, so-called Toronto 18 terrorism conspiracy case. (more…)
|
|
