By William Crooks
Local Journalism Initiative
A coalition of feminist and human rights groups is sounding the alarm over Quebec’s Bill 94, warning that the legislation would deepen the exclusion and discrimination faced by Muslim women in the province.
Audrey Gosselin Pellerin, a political feminist organizer with the Réseau des Tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec, said in an interview that the bill would have devastating consequences, particularly for Muslim women who wear religious coverings.
“This law, Bill 94, will broaden the scope of discriminatory measures that were already introduced in Bill 21,” Pellerin explained. “We have seen that Muslim women have had to give up their careers, rethink their career path, and live in more economic insecurity because of these laws.”
Bill 94, introduced by Education Minister Bernard Drainville, proposes extending the existing ban on religious symbols to cover not only public-school teachers and authority figures, as Bill 21 did, but also students, parents, all school staff, and anyone working under agreements with educational institutions. The proposed law is facing fierce opposition from over 20 organizations, including the Fédération des femmes du Québec and the Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes.
In an open letter released this week, the groups argue that the government is invoking gender equality as a justification for the bill but is in fact harming the very women it claims to protect. “We reject it because we see it as a form of instrumentalization of feminism,” said Pellerin. “We cannot achieve equality by excluding certain women from the public sphere and the job market.”
She added that the effects of Bill 21, which the new legislation would expand, have been profound and deeply harmful for Muslim women, many of whom report increased isolation, harassment, and intimidation in their workplaces and public spaces. “Their participation in society has decreased because they constantly have to be hypervigilant,” Pellerin said.
