Quebec “clarifies” application of anti-Muslim law
By
Keith Jones
26 October 2017
Quebec Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée announced Tuesday several purported “clarifications” to the provincial Liberal government’s newly-enacted law denying public services, including health care and education, to women wearing Muslim face-coverings.
Last week, as Bill 62 was being adopted by the National Assembly, Vallée explicitly stated that Muslim women who wear the niqab or burka would have to have their “face uncovered” from the beginning to the end of their municipal bus ride, library visit, or use of any other public service.
On Tuesday, she claimed that she had been misinterpreted: those wearing a Muslim face-covering who want to use a municipal bus will be forced to show their faces, for “identification” and “security” purposes, only when they embark or if asked to do so by transit police.
Quebec’s Justice Minister also “clarified” that veiled women will not be denied emergency medical services. Those accessing hospital services in other circumstances “will have to have their face uncovered,” said Vallée, “when they are in direct contact with an employee. But when they return for example to the waiting room, they will not be obliged to have their face uncovered.”
Vallée expressed dismay that the Liberals’ actions have provoked an outcry across Canada, including within Quebec. Immigrant and civil rights groups, and large numbers of ordinary people, have rightly condemned Bill 62 as a bigoted attack on Muslim women, an especially marginalized and vulnerable minority.
Vallée and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard have shamelessly lied about the aims of Bill 62. The Liberals’ ban on public services being given or received by persons with…