Minority communities in Canada’s Quebec slam ‘discriminatory’ secularism law: ‘I feel alienated’

Opponents of the rule banning public sector employees from wearing religious items at work plan to take their fight to the Supreme Court after a judge refused to quash the law

‘I am fighting for my rights as an ordinary Quebecer and a devout Sikh,’ said Amrit Kaur, who was forced to leave her hometown to take up a job in a state-run school

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Toronto skyline stands on the waterfront. One initial push for French civic Republicanism – which is the basis for Quebec’s laïcité – came in 1838, when all ties between church and state were abolished. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:28pm, 16 Mar 2024Updated: 7:43pm, 16 Mar 2024

A recent ruling by the top court in Canada’s Quebec province upholding a law barring people from wearing religious symbols at public workplaces has enraged the minority community that denounced the policy as “discriminatory”.

Amrit Kaur, one of multiple petitioners that challenged the secularism legislation introduced in 2019, accused the regional administration of abandoning its residents.

“It felt like a betrayal by the government, who refused to accept its own people,” Kaur said.

“I was suddenly not a Quebecer any more if I wanted to work at any public workplace while wearing my religious symbols,” added the devout Sikh, who dons a turban and the kada (sacred bangle).

The 33-year-old was forced to leave her hometown Montreal, where she lived since her childhood, to take up a teaching job in a state-run school in British Columbia, about 4,000km (2,500 miles) away.

Amrit Kaur said the secularism law made her feel “alienated” in Quebec. Photo: Handout

Kaur also said the law, popularly known as Bill 21, made her feel “alienated” in the French-speaking region that has a population of 8.5 million people.