Excerpts
A union representing early child-care workers in Quebec is demanding an immediate moratorium on the expansion of the ban on religious symbols announced by the province Thursday.
On top of potentially exacerbating the ongoing labour shortage across the network, expanding the ban to workers in subsidized child-care centres just isn’t necessary because pedagogical programs are already secular, Anne-Marie Bellerose, president of the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance du Québec (FIPEQ-CSQ), said Friday.
...
Under the proposed bill, Quebec’s existing ban on religious symbols will apply to all employees across the subsidized educational network in the province. In the child-care sphere, that includes CPEs, daycares and the co-ordinating bureaus that govern home-based daycares (not home-based daycares themselves), mainly affecting women who wear hijabs.
Though the bill will only be subject to hearings and votes in the new year, the grandfather clause, which exempts existing workers from the new rules, has already come into effect. It applies to those who maintain the same function within the same institution, meaning if someone were to be promoted or choose to work for a different centre, they’d lose their exemption.
...
“What we think is it’s going to send a really chilling message to children: certain bodies and beliefs are not welcome in Quebec’s public life,” she said. “And the result is a less inclusive society where young people grow up seeing fewer racialized role models in positions of authority — so, it’s segregation through policy.”