{"id":3263,"date":"2010-03-26T10:46:48","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T14:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=3263"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:56:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:56:56","slug":"confusion-over-quebecs-anti-burkha-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2010\/03\/26\/confusion-over-quebecs-anti-burkha-moves\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusion over Quebec’s anti-burkha moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even in the same newspaper, the conclusions are drawn based on the observer’s preferred worldview, rather than the facts of the case. In the National Post<\/em>, here’s Barbara Kay’s ringing endorsement<\/a> for a pro-equality outcome:<\/p>\n

\n

Chapeau, le Qu\u00e9bec!<\/em> That means, \u201cHats off to you, Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the announcement of Bill 94, barring the niqab in publicly funded spaces, Quebec has dared to tread where the other provinces, feet bolted to the floor in politically correct anguish, cannot bring themselves to go.<\/p>\n

The new bill will proscribe face cover by anyone employed by the state, or anyone receiving services from the state. That covers all government departments and Crown corporations, and as well hospitals, schools, universities and daycares receiving provincial funding.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember a time when Quebecers were more unified on a government initiative.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Also in the National Post<\/em>, here’s Chris Selley<\/a> doing his best Inigo Montoya imitation:<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m not quite sure what Quebec\u2019s new Bill 94 means, but I\u2019m pretty sure it doesn\u2019t mean what Premier Jean Charest and Immigration Minister Yolande James are saying it means.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Ms. James: \u201cTo work in the Quebec public service or to receive the services of the Quebec state, your face has to be uncovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Mr. Charest: \u201cTwo words: Uncovered face. The principle is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s Bill 94: \u201cThe general practice holds that a member of the staff of the administration of government . . . and a person to whom services are being rendered . . . will have their faces uncovered during the rendering of services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huh? General<\/em> practice? Oh: \u201cWhen an accommodation involves a change to this practice, it must be refused if motives related to security, communication or identification justify it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So there will<\/em> be accommodations, then? You sure wouldn\u2019t have known it from Wednesday\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All that being said, I can’t disagree with the sentiment later in Barbara Kay’s column:<\/p>\n

\n

Some of these women may, as in France, have adopted the niqab for ideological purposes (a serious problem in itself), but most niqab-wearing women are virtual prisoners, who have never known, and would be afraid (with reason) to exercise their \u201cfreedom of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those confused liberals who instinctively hate the niqab but feel guilty about banning it, it will help them if they understand that the burka and niqab are not \u201cworn,\u201d but \u201cborne.\u201d The niqab is not an article of clothing; it is a tent-like piece of cloth supplemental to clothing. Full cover is worn as a reminder to the \u201cbearer\u201d that she is not free, and to remind the observer that the bearer is a possession, something less than a full human being.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Update<\/b>: The National Post<\/em> editorial board comes out against the Quebec bill<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Gender equality — a stated goal of Bill 94 — is a noble goal. But the law would go too far, using the state\u2019s power to leverage a campaign of social engineering. As conservatives, we oppose such encroachments on individual liberties. But liberals, too, should understand the stakes at play here: The principle that government has no role in our wardrobes is the same one that excludes it from our bedrooms.<\/p>\n

In the short term, the better approach is the one recently embarked upon by several Quebec schools, where administrators have common-sensically resolved the issue of what constitutes \u201creasonable accommodation\u201d on a case-by-case basis. In the long term, moreover, we are convinced that legislation won\u2019t be necessary at all: Muslim groups themselves increasingly are joining the chorus against the niqab, a welcome development that puts the lie to the notion that Canadian Muslims are uniformly backward in their attitudes toward women.<\/p>\n

It would benefit women, Muslims, inter-faith relations and Canadian values alike if this unfortunate practice were extinguished voluntarily by the affected community itself rather than by heavy-handed state edict.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even in the same newspaper, the conclusions are drawn based on the observer’s preferred worldview, rather than the facts of the case. In the National Post, here’s Barbara Kay’s ringing endorsement for a pro-equality outcome: Chapeau, le Qu\u00e9bec! That means, \u201cHats off to you, Quebec.\u201d With the announcement of Bill 94, barring the niqab in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9,10,11],"tags":[198,47,113,43,1122],"class_list":["post-3263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-law","category-liberty","category-religion","tag-equalrights","tag-islam","tag-quebec","tag-women","tag-xenophobia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-QD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3263"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38190,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions\/38190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}