Muslim women have lost their jobs because of the policies

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, QUEBEC — In response to Quebec’s secularism law, the local High Court held a lawsuit hearing on Tuesday (8/11/2022), filed by groups opposed to the policy. The lawsuit was filed because it was seen as highly discriminatory against Muslim women.

Reported from Radio-Canada NewsOn Tuesday (8/11/2022), the Quebec government and several civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit over a High Court ruling issued last year in favor of most, but not all, of the provisions of the law.

Passed under Quebec’s Coalition Avenir government in June 2019, the law on secularism prohibits public school teachers, police officers, government lawyers, certain other civil servants and even certain politicians from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. work.

Provinces preemptively use clauses although they are constitutional when drafting laws, to protect them against possible legal challenges. This means that lawyers who oppose Bill 21 are trying to assert provisions of the Constitution that generally cannot be waived by clauses, including the right to gender equality.

Muslim women have lost their jobs because of the policies

Perri Ravon, a lawyer representing the Montreal English Language Schools Commission, argued Tuesday that Bill 21 or the Secularism Act was intended to target one group in particular Muslim women who wear the headscarf.

“The expert evidence in this case received by trial judges establishes that Bill 21 is likely to increase the harms suffered by Muslim women more than any other group,” Ravon told the three-judge panel. .

Ravon noted that at the EMSB, eight people lost their jobs or were denied employment because of Bill 21. All of them were Muslim women.