Opinion: Bill 21 failed Fatemeh Anvari. But it also fails her students like my son, and Quebec secularists like me


DECEMBER 28, 2021

Aidan Seaton’s two children attend Chelsea Elementary School in Quebec. she works at The Low Down to Hull and Back News, Local newspaper serving Gatineau Hills.

My son was begging me to come to his Class 3 class, and so, thanks to his teacher’s enthusiastic arrangement of logistics, I came on December 3rd to give a brief presentation about Hanukkah. This is something that Chelsea Elementary School welcomes every year during the festival of lights. I was dismayed when, the day before, his teacher sent me an email asking him to miss our time together—but still, the next day, my son and I told our classmates the Hanukkah story.

According to legend, in the 2nd century BC, Jewish practices were forbidden in Jerusalem by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of the Seleucid Empire. Most of the people obeyed, hiding their religious activities out of fear. But a small group called the Maccabees resisted their oppressors and refused to renounce their religion. In 168 BC, the king’s army descended, massacred thousands of Jews, destroyed the temple, and defiled it by sacrificing pigs and building an altar to the Greek god Zeus. But the Maccabees stood for two years and pushed back Antiochus’ troops, gaining access to the temple and rekindling the menorah’s eternal flame with a day’s worth of oil, which instead miraculously burned for eight days. And so, voila: to this day, we celebrate those eight days of Hanukkah.
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When I shared that ancient story, I didn’t know that on the same day, my son’s teacher, Fatemeh Anwari, She is sent on duty outside the classroom because she wears a hijab. According to the Quebec government, that religious symbol made her ineligible for the teaching role she was already holding, even though Ms. Anvari They say That she sees the hijab more as a part of her identity and how she chooses to represent herself. As a result, a clever, kind, trained teacher was barred from doing his job because of his symbolic clothing. And now, Ms. Anvari has been reassigned to work on a literacy project focused on diversity in the school – a bitter irony.

I was born in Quebec and have lived happily in this province for most of my life. I myself am committed to secularism, which is known in this province secularism, And I think it has a lot to offer. I remember as a Jewish kid living in rural Ontario in the 1980s, religion was a regular part of life in public schools. In Class 5, I was given a Gideon Bible during class time—part of Gideon’s regular visit for all students at the time—and each morning in class, I recited the Lord’s Prayer. While I still appreciate the beauty of those words today, prayer should never have been part of my school’s early practice, a debate that was widespread across much of Canada after the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled in 1988 That the school’s prayer had violated Canadians. Charter.
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But there is a difference between forcing a child to read or sit through religious devotional prayer during class and giving individuals the freedom to dress according to their wishes and beliefs. Ms. Anwari taught my son the art of the English language, not Islamic doctrine; Her hijab never interfered with the education she taught, and it had no effect on the curriculum she was teaching the children in her class. In short, he teaching was secular, as a public school should be. The problem, the provincial government would assure us, was that She was insufficiently secular, at least in her appearance.

Some proponents of Bill 21 claim that allowing the presence of any religious symbol amounts to conversion. This caricature portrays religious people incredibly willing to participate in public life. It is precisely this intolerance that has led many to doubt John F. Kennedy’s ability to serve as the first Catholic President of the United States in the 1960s – concerns that are unimaginable today.

And as many have pointed out, there are crosses on many public buildings throughout the province. Personally, I do not want them to be removed: they are part of the development of Quebec, and are relics of a bygone era that remind us of the significant cultural change that this province has undergone. These symbols may still resonate with some people, but they no longer hold their former power.

Maybe we could all benefit from having a little more let it go On issues of personal expression, even if there is a hint of religion. What are the disadvantages of wearing a hijab in the open? In this case the children certainly did no harm – that is, until they lost their teacher. On the other hand, there have been huge losses to individuals who lose the opportunity to be hired, individuals who find themselves suddenly unfit for advancement, and entire groups of people who are explicitly told that they are not eligible for certain jobs. There is no need to apply when they are fully capable of performing those roles. How does excluding people who wish to participate and contribute to their communities serve the interests of Quebec society?

Part of the beauty and freedom of secularism is the belief that we can follow a religion – or not – without punishment. But I can see how this noble idea can be distorted. After all, coercion doesn’t promote anything positive, let alone a subtle concept like secularism. Bill 21 has eroded open old conflicts, created new conflicts, and led to layers of polarization within Quebec and across the rest of the country. Its interpretation of secularist principles will lead us to no good place.

Chelsea’s current situation has put many in unstable moral positions, caught between fulfilling their official duties and their sense of justice. My children’s school and school board are officially against Bill 21, yet they must abide by it. Could this be a moment of conscientious denial? Doing so would not simply follow a moral sense: it would be based on the Canadian Constitution, Quebec’s own charter, as well as the simple human understanding that all people should be free to practice their religion.

Secularism is the foundation for Quebec society, and a liberal reading of Bill 21 may claim that the law is trying to promote neutrality. And it has been disappointing to see that Quebecers who support Bill 21 are all dismissed as bigotry, when the complex reality is that Quebecers have many reasons to support this law. But with the enactment of the bill, we have seen how quickly any laudable goal is broken.

The Maccabees conquered their oppression and, as Dreidel of the Jewish diaspora reminds us, a great miracle happened there. But I don’t think that’s necessarily what we need here in Quebec. We just need to take a deep breath and decide to be together instead of apart.