Sacra Blu! Quebec Showing The Way To Common Sense...

National Post editorial board: Look to Quebec on 'reasonable accommodations'

Posted: March 18, 2010, 9:00 AM by Chris Selley

In bits and pieces, Quebec is working out just what constitutes “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities, particularly Muslim women. It’s a delicate balancing act between legitimate religious freedoms and the greater society’s culture norms. But the province seems to be developing some guidelines that might inform the rest of the country. Two weeks ago, Quebec’s Cabinet backed a community college’s decision to expel an Egyptian-born woman from a French-as-a-second-language class for refusing to show her face while being examined on French pronunciation. Instructors insisted they could not know whether Naema Ahmed had the proper elocution unless they could see her lips move. When she refused to remove the face covering of her niqab to let her male instructor study her face, the college dismissed her. She has filed a human rights grievance. Her grievance, however, may not get that far. This week the province’s human rights commission ruled that Muslim women applying for a provincial health-care card cannot demand their photograph be taken by a female clerk. The unveiling needed for the ID ID photo is so brief, there is no violation of Islamic modesty codes if only a male clerk is available.

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