Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that he did not rule out federal intervention in a legal challenge to Quebec’s secularism law, after an elementary school teacher was recently reassigned because she wears a Muslim headscarf.
“I strongly disagree with Bill 21,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “I don’t think that in a free and open society, someone should lose their job because of their religion, and it is no longer a theoretical question.”
Trudeau said he believes the teacher, Fatemeh Anvari, lost her job due to her religion and that many Quebecers are concerned about the issue.
Bill 21 prohibits public sector workers considered to be in positions of authority, such as teachers, judges and police officers, from wearing religious symbols at work.
“A province has passed a law and the citizens of that province are in the process of defending their rights before the courts and this is exactly how it should work, but as I have said very often, we have not ruled it out, like the federal government, intervening at some point, ”Trudeau said.
Responding to Trudeau’s comments, Quebec Prime Minister François Legault said on Monday that he did not understand how the federal government could intervene in a challenge to a bill that has the support of the majority of Quebecers.
“Bill 21 was voted democratically, it was supported by the majority of Quebecers,” he told reporters in Montreal. “I don’t see how the federal government can intervene on such a sensitive issue for our nation.”
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Legault said the law is not problematic in a free and open society “because people are free to use, or not, a religious sign.”
“First, we are only talking about people who are in a position of authority,” he said. “Secondly, these people, if they don’t use a religious sign, be it Catholic, Jewish, whatever the religious sign is, if they don’t use the sign when they work in a position of authority, they can still work and they can use their religious sign. on the street, at home, anywhere else. “
Legault said it is important that government employees appear neutral, adding that a teacher will not be allowed to wear a shirt defending his support for the Liberal Party.
@JustinTrudeau will not rule out federal intervention in defiance of the secular law #Quebec. #CDNPoli # Bill21
It was reported last week that a third grade teacher at Chelsea Elementary School, just north of Gatineau, Que., Had been reassigned to tasks outside of the classroom due to her hijab.
This Canadian Press report was first published on December 13, 2021.
This story was produced with financial assistance from Facebook and the Canadian Press News Fellowship
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com