The Quebec Liberal government of Jean Charest is vowing to adopt as law its chauvinist, anti-democratic Bill 94 during the fall session of the National Assembly. If passed, this law would prohibit women wearing the niqab or burqa, i.e. a full Muslim face veil, from obtaining services from public and para-governmental institutions under Quebec jurisdiction, including doctors’ offices and health clinics and government-funded schools, colleges (CEGEPs), and universities... The government has since said that a “humanitarian” exception will be made in cases of medical emergency.
Bill 94, which has been generally well received by Quebec’s corporate media and political elite, was initially tabled last March following a trumped-up media furor over a Muslim woman who chose to wear the niqab while attending a government-sponsored French-language course for immigrants.
This furor was itself only the latest stage in a now almost four year-old debate in Quebec over “reasonable accommodation”—a debate in which much of the press and political elite have charged that too many “concessions” have been made to immigrants and religious minorities and that they should be called upon to do more to “respect” and adhere to Quebec values.
This campaign was spearheaded by the rightwing populist Action démocratique du Québec, which placed it at the center of its campaign in the spring 2007 Quebec election. The media, especially the Journal de Montréal and other Quebecor tabloids, strongly supported this campaign, hoping to use it to establish a popular base of support for rightwing policies. For many years, Quebec’s business elite has been expressing frustration and anger over the lack of popular support for “free market” policies, especially for the dismantling of Medicare (universal free public health insurance) and other public and social services.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/queb-o16.shtml
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