The Quebec government says it will ban religious symbols in the province’s daycare centres.
Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge says there is a “broad consensus” that Quebecers want secularism to be strengthened.
The announcement follows a recommendation made this summer by a committee tasked with advising the province on how to enhance secularism. The committee had called for the ban to be extended to daycares.
Quebec has already banned public sector workers in positions of authority, such as teachers and judges, from wearing religious symbols on the job.
Québécois here. I’m surprised by the positive reception here.
First because normally, anything about Québec policies on reddit (unless it’s on a Quebec-related sub) is received very negatively, and harshly so, while I may support, be neutral, or against but with understanding where it’s coming from. But that may be a Reddit-Lemmy difference. And that’s welcome. I don’t expect people to agree with everything Quebec does, but I do value reason.
Second, because this time, I’m very much against. I’m an atheist, antitheist even. But what would banning headscarves in daycare centers even achieve? Do you think children growing up will be convinced to become Muslim because their educators were veiled? And for the negative impacts:
People probably mistakenly assumed the law was in good faith and would do something like ban hanging crosses around the classroom, not ban covering up part of your body. Calling head coverings “religious symbols” is flatly dishonest. Next up anybody who doesn’t eat bacon at every meal will be fired for forcing their religion on others.
Oh. That government has been campaigning on this for years now. I didn’t even realize it would mean something different to the wider world. Of course it does. My bad. Yeah. It’s all about veiled women. It’s all very xenophobic, islamophobic.
it allows people to escape oppression? Religion has no place in day care centres, period.