Quebec passes law forcing Muslim women from wearing niqab while using public services

Apparently this applies to staff at the Provincial and municipal level providing public services (including public transit), as well as those receiving the services.

The bill requires citizens giving and receiving public services to do so with their faces uncovered, and is seen as "... necessary for "communication reasons, identification reasons and security reasons."

your thoughts, SW? No hateful comments please

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-niqab-burka-bill-62-1.4360121?cid=

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bijouxbroussard · F

What would be a hateful response ? The country has the right to be able to visually verify the identification of someone seeking public services. That’s not unreasonable to me.

CaptainCanadia · 41-45, M

@bijouxbroussard This comes on the heels of a law which was an attempt to specifically ban religious garb for people using public services (that failed) - this now pretends it is not about religious by banning any face covering.

The issue here is that it criminalizes a small set of Muslim women. They'll lose their job and be unable to use public transport. I don't know how far this goes but this could also extend to education and hospitals by my reading. So they're going to go into hiding and suffer.

Salix75 · 46-50, F

@bijouxbroussard Just hoping to avoid having this devolve into a bigoted anti-Islam thread :)

Salix75 · 46-50, F

@CaptainCanadia I wonder what the stats are on how many Muslim women in jobs working with the public actually cover their face? I know when there was talk of a similar national (?) law, it turned out that there were VERY few women in the affected workforces that wore either the burka (I think that was zero) or a niqab. So effectively the proposed legislation would have been useless.

Ellen · 46-50, F

@bijouxbroussard Again we agree. 😊

bijouxbroussard · F

@CaptainCanadia I still think they have the right to do it. A hijab covers one’s head and hair while still allowing facial identification. When in Rome, etc.