Quebec Premier François Legault says he does not “surely” accept as true with Muslim ladies inside the province who say they have been the target of Islamophobic incidents since the government exceeded a regulation making it unlawful for some civil servants to wear spiritual symbols. Several Muslim ladies who wear either the hijab or niqab have told CBC News that because the legislation was tabled in March, they’ve been harassed, made the target of hateful comments, and even spat on. A girls’ advocacy organization, Justice Femme, recorded more than forty Islamophobic incidents around Montreal between past due March and early May.
Muslim network leaders have shared memories on social media that suggest the incidents of harassment have not died down within the two weeks since the regulation came into effect. Legault was asked on CBC Radio whether he believes the brand new regulation — which bars public instructors and other authority figures from sporting nonsecular symbols — makes some Quebecers more vulnerable to racism.
“For the human beings managing this bill … They are saying that they have acquired a greater degree of harassment and intimidation and even assaults because the invoice exceeded,” the host of CBC Montreal’s Daybreak, Ainslie MacLellan, instructed Legault.
“Do you consider those memories — that they may be honestly dealing with this stuff?”
Legault responded: “Not without a doubt.”
Comparisons to Europe
The most advantageous went on to describe the spiritual symbols law as moderate because it applies best to a small number of civil servants: public schoolteachers, faculty principals, government legal professionals, police officers, judges, and natural world officers are prohibited from wearing signs of their religion. “[The law] is pretty similar to what we’ve in Belgium, in France, in Germany,” Legault stated.
