Bill 21 and the offer of Quebec Muslim women to move to Manitoba

#Monreal, #Bill21, #Manitoba


Montreal, Nov 29 (Canadian-Media): Some Muslim women in Quebec, affected by the province's ban on religious symbols due to the political issue of Bill 21, were tempted by the offer to move to the Prairie province, a region in Western Canada including  Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, media reports said.

The ad campaign launched Thursday with an aim to free Quebecers from the limitations of the province's secularism law, which prohibits public servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols including include the hijab, skullcap and turban. 

The arguments of the civil rights group that this law caused an irreparable harm was heard in a Quebec Court of Appeal earlier this week.

"People's lives are being ruined. People are being forced to leave their professions. People are being forced to leave this province," Catherine McKenzie, a lawyer representing the groups, told the court.

Diverse population and plethora of provincial parks in the province of Manitoba were among 2i list of reasons which appealed to the Muslims in Quebec to move to Manitoba.

"I think it's an interesting move from another province: They take something bad happening somewhere else and turn it into a good thing for them," Shahad Salman, a lawyer who runs a public relations firm in Montreal, said the message appealed to her as well.

But she said that a better solution was "Not having Bill 21." 

Nour Farhat, a 28-year-old Montrealer who recently completed a master's in criminal law said her dream becoming a Crown prosecutor in Quebec had been thwarted by the Bill 21, is involved in one of the legal challenges.

Nour Farhat. Image Credit: CBC

She was reported to say although the move to Manitoba appealed her, but she said she had no plans to leave.

"Why can't I be this person here, where I was born and raised? Why do I have to go to the other side of the country to realize my dream?" she said. "This is why I won't go to any other province — because I want to be able to do this here in Quebec."