The catch is that the separation of state and religion is seen differently in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada. In Quebec everyone is made equal by getting religion out of public institutions (ex.: a judge can’t wear a religious sign), in Canada everyone is made equal by being allowed to ask for religious exemptions (ex.: turban wearers don’t have to wear a helmet to ride a motorcycle in Alberta).
Quebec passed a law to prevent certain public servants from wearing religious signs (teachers, judges, police officers…) and the rest of Canada didn’t agree with them.
Not everyone in Québec is a French Canadian. There are also French Canadians in the rest of Canada.
But I’m guessing laïcité is a concept you would like to learn more about before making sweeping judgements? Laïcité isn’t perfect, but neither is exemptionism. Laïcité fails people who want to completely freely express their religion, where exemptionism fails those who want to be free from the religion of others.
Have spend time in religious-conflict zones, I’m personally biased towards laïcité. You can imagine Muslims and Jews might want some freedom from seeing symbols of the other’s religion in public institutions right now with the ongoing conflict. Similar feeling for Christians, Orthodox, and Muslims after the Yugoslavian wars; or Christians and Muslims in sub-saharan African; or Sunnis and Shias on Yemen; or anyone who’s not Deobandian Sunni in Afghanistan.
Exemptionism is great for people who haven’t experienced religious persecution. Québécois.e.s feel, real or precived, that they were persecuted by their own religion. This led to the silent revolution, and has a lasting effect of voting in favour of more restrictive, over open, religious freedom laws.
I hope this helps, and of you have examples of which darker skin religions do not get to keep their culture, I would be interested to hear. My own burrough has large Haitian, Jamaican, and Côté d’ivoirian communities; and a fledgling laosian one.
As an immigrant that came to the West Coast I appreciate what you say here as it helps me (us) understand better the reasoning behind the banning of religious symbols in Quebec.
The catch is that the separation of state and religion is seen differently in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada. In Quebec everyone is made equal by getting religion out of public institutions (ex.: a judge can’t wear a religious sign), in Canada everyone is made equal by being allowed to ask for religious exemptions (ex.: turban wearers don’t have to wear a helmet to ride a motorcycle in Alberta).
Quebec passed a law to prevent certain public servants from wearing religious signs (teachers, judges, police officers…) and the rest of Canada didn’t agree with them.
removed by mod
Not everyone in Québec is a French Canadian. There are also French Canadians in the rest of Canada.
But I’m guessing laïcité is a concept you would like to learn more about before making sweeping judgements? Laïcité isn’t perfect, but neither is exemptionism. Laïcité fails people who want to completely freely express their religion, where exemptionism fails those who want to be free from the religion of others.
Have spend time in religious-conflict zones, I’m personally biased towards laïcité. You can imagine Muslims and Jews might want some freedom from seeing symbols of the other’s religion in public institutions right now with the ongoing conflict. Similar feeling for Christians, Orthodox, and Muslims after the Yugoslavian wars; or Christians and Muslims in sub-saharan African; or Sunnis and Shias on Yemen; or anyone who’s not Deobandian Sunni in Afghanistan.
Exemptionism is great for people who haven’t experienced religious persecution. Québécois.e.s feel, real or precived, that they were persecuted by their own religion. This led to the silent revolution, and has a lasting effect of voting in favour of more restrictive, over open, religious freedom laws.
I hope this helps, and of you have examples of which darker skin religions do not get to keep their culture, I would be interested to hear. My own burrough has large Haitian, Jamaican, and Côté d’ivoirian communities; and a fledgling laosian one.
As an immigrant that came to the West Coast I appreciate what you say here as it helps me (us) understand better the reasoning behind the banning of religious symbols in Quebec.
I think you’d have to discuss that with France first.