QUEBEC — Former PQ candidate and author Djemila Benhabib told Bill 62 hearings Tuesday that ostentatious religious signs have no place in Quebec institutions.
Benhabib’s presentation marked the last day of hearings into the Liberal bill, which aims to bar people from wearing face coverings when giving or receiving a public service. It also proposes guidelines for religious accommodations in the province. Benhabib told Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée she doesn’t think the bill goes far enough.
“Quebecers deserve better,” she said. “They deserve to live in a truly democratic society … to wear ostentatious religious symbols is, for me, totally incompatible with the respect of others.”
Benhabib, who is of Algerian and Greek-Cypriot descent, is a well-known opponent of Muslim fundamentalism. She was a finalist for the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards for her non-fiction book Ma vie à contre-Coran. She was the PQ candidate for Trois-Rivières in the 2012 Quebec general election, but lost to Danielle St-Amant. She was again candidate in 2014 in Mille-Îles, but was defeated by Francine Charbonneau.
Religion is a personal affair, Benhabib argued, and its display should not be encouraged by the province. “Why did we de-confessionalize schools … if only to backtrack years later?” she asked.
“What lucidity, what truth,” Coalition Avenir Québec Nathalie Roy said. “Thank you for the fight that you are leading.”
The National Assembly committee in charge of studying Bill 62 will also hear Tuesday from the federation of medical specialists and the Commission scolaire de Montréal.