Employers should be able to set dress codes for their
workplace, but in the case of the proposed Charter of Values, the Parti
Quebecois government is going too far.
One of the Charter’s proposals includes
a highly controversial ban on the wearing of “conspicuous” religious symbols - kippas, turbans, hijabs,
burkas and large crosses – in the public sector workplace. The ban would affect
all public sector employees including daycare staff, school and hospital
employees, police, judges and civil servants.
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| Quebec's Charter of Values poster - unacceptable religious symbols |
It calls into questions the religious neutrality of the state
According to the Quebec government,
banning religious symbols from the workplace would ensure the religious
neutrality of the state. If the Charter becomes law, compliance
with the ban will likely be more burdensome for non-Christians than Christians,
and, in my opinion, this calls into question the very religious neutrality of
the state.
It is necessary and reasonable
for a secular state to require its employees to exercise their duties in the
spirit of religious neutrality. This applies to both the religious and the
non-religious. In the absence of evidence that Quebec has a substantial problem
with its public sector employees who wear religious symbols, the Charter of
Values seems unnecessary and repressive.
Human resource policies for troublesome employees should be enough
It is also insulting. It paints all religious people with the
same brush, suggesting that those who wear religious symbols to work are
incapable of doing their jobs competently and without prejudice because of their
desire to express their beliefs. While there are fanatics in every religion who
may cause problems, a legislated charter of values to deal with them is
excessive. Human resource policies that are well developed and properly
administered should be sufficient to deal with individual employees who do not
act in a professional manner because of their religious beliefs.
It distorts the concept of the separation of church and state
Some argue that the ban on
wearing religious symbols in the public sector workplace is a natural extension
of the separation of church and state. I disagree. The imposition of a charter
of values that discriminates against some because they wear religious symbols
(and let’s be honest, non-Christians will be most affected) distorts the
concept of separation between church and state.
The separation of church and
state protects the freedom of religion and its expression; it does not try to
limit them by policing clothing.
Neither favoring nor discriminating against any religion, the state
maintains its neutrality. Public policies on issues such as abortion and gay
marriage, which most religions oppose, effectively illustrate the success of
the separation between church and state.
Over time, the Charter of Values
could have the unintended consequence of pushing religious groups to the
fringes of society under the guise of preserving the separation of church and
state. Eventually, similar
pressures may begin to play out in the private sector.
Requiring people to remove the
symbols of their religion as a condition of public sector employment has the
effect of removing their community of faith from the public eye, and making it invisible.
A ban on religious symbols denies
the individual and their community their identity and existence. This has never
been the intention of the separation of church and state.
Public sector employees do not
need to hide their religion in order to preserve the religious neutrality of
the state. A Charter of
Values that forbids employees from displaying religious symbols on their person
in the public sector workplace unwittingly promotes a vision of society without
religion. It suggests that religion should be unseen, and while some would
agree, this is untenable in a society that constitutionally guarantees freedom of religion and
expression.
The Charter of Values seeks to
regulate the expression of religion in the public sector. In doing so, and to
the detriment of individuals’ beliefs, the Charter approaches a repudiation of
the very religious neutrality that the Quebec government seeks to enshrine as a
core value.
