Quebec lawmakers told secularism bill will institutionalizediscrimination, stoke Islamophobia

It wasn't until late on the second day of hearings intoQuebec's secularism billthat lawmakers heard from someone who wears one of the religious symbols targeted by the legislation.

But by the time Samira Laouni wrapped up her testimony, the committee was confronted with a detailed description ofIslamophobia in Quebec and arguments why the proposed law would only make it worse.

Wearing a purple hijab, or Muslim head covering,in the National Assembly's "red room,"Laounisaidthat by seeking to bar some civil servants including public school teachers, police officers and judgesfrom wearing religious symbols, such as hijabs, skullcaps or turbans, the government was sending a message.

"The message being received by Muslims... is that they're not welcome in Quebec,"Laouni said, speaking forCommunication pour l'ouverture et le rapprochement interculturel, a non-profit group that promotesinter-cultural dialogue.

"That's clearly not the message the government wants to send."

She expressed concerns that by singling out some religious groups more than otherssuch as Muslim womenthe bill was contributing to intolerance. The bill, she said, will "legitimizediscimination."

Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barretteappeared to be skeptical whenLaounidescribed "radical secularists" who were whippingup hatred against Muslims.

"Maybe our elected officials should read our Facebook pages to see what we're subjected to everyday," she said later in the hearing.

"There has been a normalization of hatred in Quebec."

Bill amounts to 'institutionalizing discrimination:' anti-racism activist

Laouni's group was accompanied by several members of the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre, the Quebec City mosque where six people were killed in 2017 by a gunmanradicalized by the white nationalist movement.

She said representatives of the cultural centre had also asked to speak at the commissionbut weredenied a spot. Several other religious groups have criticized the government for leaving them out of the hearings.

Theonly Muslim group that did receive an invitation, the Association des Musulmans et des Arabes pour la lacit au Qubec, addressed the hearings earlier Wednesday.

Speaking for the group, Haroun Bouazzisaid it was members of racializedcommunities who wouldbe harmed most by the religious symbols ban in the public service.

"This bill is actually institutionalizing discrimination," said Bouazzi, a well-known anti-racism activist in Montreal,following his appearance at the hearing.

The head of Quebec's human rights commission, Philippe-Andr Tessier, whotestified late yesterday evening, made similar remarks. The bill will force people to either change their religious practices or risk losing their job, said Tessier.

"That, in other words, is discrimination," he said. "There aren't 1,000 different ways to say that."

Hamburger man and the lack of evidence

The Coalition Avenir Qubec government acknowledges that its bill would limit an individual right, namely the right to religious freedom.

But the governmentargues that doing so is necessary in order to finally resolve Quebec's long debate over how to accommodate minorities, and preserve the province's distinctcollective identity.

The bill, moreover, invokes the notwithstanding clause, which the government hopes will spare it from being challenged in court on grounds it violates the Quebec and Canadian charters of rights.

In many of his questions to the committee's witnesses, Jolin-Barrettehas sought their opinion on whether the government is justified in limiting a rightand invoking thenotwithstanding clause.

The famed sociologist Gerard Bouchard, who co-authored a landmark study in 2008 on religious accommodations, agreed that sometimes it's OKto violate a fundamental rightif it's for a greater good.

"Where is the greater good that would render this limitation legitimate? I don't see it,"Bouchardsaid during his highly anticipated testimony Wednesday afternoon.

There is no evidence, he said, that religious symbols traumatize students or leadto radicalization.

"If just one of those elements were proven, I would support your bill, because then there would be higher principle," he said.

Bouchardis adamantly opposed to the bill in its current form, saying it makes the province look intolerant in the eyes of the world.

The bill's critics on the committee the Liberals and Qubec Solidairehave repeatedly asked its backers to provide evidence of the threat to Quebec society that the legislation would address.

On Wednesday, the committee heard from two educators who argued that when teachers wear religious symbols, it harmsgender equality.

They were asked by Qubec SolidaireMNASol Zanettiwhether they had any datato showa link between Islamic radicalization and thehijab.

"Do you need studies to show that the McDonald's hamburger man encourages people to eat more hamburgers?" replied Nadia El-Mabrouk, a Universit de Montreal computer science professor and well-known advocate for secularism.

The hearings continue Thursday before adjourning for the weekend.