‘Muslims do not feel safe’: Bill 21 is fuelling Islamophobia in Quebec, say advocates

Five years after the Quebec City mosque attack, advocates say the province’s Bill 21 continues to fuel prejudices, hate and Islamophobia.

On Jan. 29, 2017, a gunman killed six people and seriously injured 19 others during evening prayer at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. The attack was widely condemned as an act of terrorism.

Advocates say five years may have passed, but the feelings of fear remain within Quebec’s Muslim community. They say those feelings are exacerbated by the province’s secularism law that bans religious symbols from being worn by public servants such as teachers and police officers.

Bill 21 is being challenged in Quebec’s Court of Appeal.

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“It puts forward prejudices and stereotypes that do not belong in free society,” said Lina El Bakir, the Quebec advocacy officer for the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). “There should not be a second class of citizenship in Quebec.”

“This discrimination unfortunately creates a divide in the population.”

Some Muslims say they are directly targeted by Bill 21 and feel the discourse surrounding it can be dangerous. They warn it’s a more subtle version of the outright Islamophobic and far-right anti-immigrant literature consumed by the Quebec City gunman, Alexandre Bissonnette.

“We hear testimonies in mosques,” said El Bakir. “When people, the first prayer they do, they make sure the door is closed because they don’t feel comfortable with their backs to the door.

“There is Islamophobia. Nobody… Muslims do not feel safe.”

A recent Leger poll for the Association for Canadian Studies found support for an element of Bill 21 has slipped. Fifty-five per cent of Quebecers polled were in favour of banning religious symbols being worn by public-school teachers. That’s compared to a September survey that found 64 per cent were in favour of Bill 21.

The seeming shift in public opinion may be tied to recent events in Chelsea, Que. Debate over Bill 21 was ignited last month after an elementary-school teacher was reassigned from teaching duties because she wore a hijab.

Quebec Premier François Legault said the school board should have respected Bill 21 during the hiring process. He defended the law as reasonable and balanced.

Hundreds protested the decision in Chelsea. A similar protest was held in Montreal.

“The children and the parents of the children protested,” said Idil Issa, the founder of Muslim Women Against Racism. “They’re not from a religious minority. They said, ‘we like this teacher, why is she being shifted? So it just begins with everyday teachers saying, ‘I want my teachers and public servants to be chosen based on their competency, their skill, and not their religious affiliation.’

“I never thought we could have a law in Canada that discriminates against people based on protected classes as citizens.”

MORE ON BILL 21:

• Montrealers protest removal of hijabi teacher from classroom due to Bill 21
• Quebec board wrong to hire teacher who wore hijab given secularism law: Legault
• Quebec judge appointment raises Bill 21 questions
• After Brampton, Toronto mayor asks council to help fight Quebec’s Bill 21 in court
• ‘It’s suffocating’: Teacher at French-language school wants Bill 21 abolished

Teachers who wore the hijab on the job prior to Bill 21 coming into effect in June 2019 are allowed to remain in their positions as part of the secularism law’s grandfather clause.

That’s the current situation for Montreal elementary-school teacher Maha Kassef. But it only applies if she stays in her current role, meaning she won’t be able to move up.

Recently, the Quebec government – faced with the fifth wave of the pandemic and the possibility that too many teachers fall ill – decided it may call on parents to come in and help supervise students. Bill 21 won’t apply to them.

“If you deem these parents, who probably have other things to do and they’re qualified in other areas, are fine to come into the classroom with a religious symbol on, and it’s not putting children’s lives in danger of being exposed to difference, then why is it a problem if it’s their usual teacher?” said Kassef.

Issa wants Quebecers of all faiths to be valued equally.

“They are just as much a Quebecer as anyone else,” she said. “Just to encourage them to go ahead and take their place in society.”