A panel of academics and Quebec residents discussed the downfalls of the proposed charter of Quebec values at Carleton Sept. 24.
The panel, many of whom were once or still are residents of Quebec, was moderated by Carleton assistant professor Melanie Adrian. She was joined by professors, a rabble.ca parliamentary correspondent, and a columnist from the Globe and Mail.
All said they believed there was a lot wrong with the proposal, which would prohibit public service employees from wearing certain religious clothing and symbols at the workplace.
“The state should never be in the business of telling women how to dress,” University of Ottawa law professor Natasha Bakht said.
Karl Nerenberg, the rabble.ca correspondent, said while students and other residents paying for or requiring a public service would not be affected, those who aid them would be affected.
Globe columnist Sheema Khan, who wears a hijab, referenced many incidences of people with religious clothing or symbols being asked to remove them in Montreal.
She said she encountered an incident on a walk with her then six-month-old daughter during which a man told her to “go back home.” It was the first time she said she experienced racism in her life.
“I said to my husband, ‘I don’t want to live here. I don’t want to raise my kids in an environment where they are meant to experience racism,’” she said.
Bakht noted a lack of evidence backing up the proposed charter.
“The [party] has offered no concrete evidence for this massive generalization, and the idea is not only contrary to religious rights and freedoms, but also the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” she said.
Associate Carleton humanities professor Johannes Wolfart, who said he has done years of research on secularism, said the proposal is dated.
“The values it represents seem to belong to another age,” he said.
Khan suggested that the people of Quebec be more like one of her favourite singers, Tina Turner.
She said, “I ask Quebeckers, ‘What’s dress got to do with it?’”
