Headline Nov. 01/ ''' CANADA'S VEIL-LAW CANARY'S '''

''' CANADA'S VEIL-LAW CANARY'S '''

''MCGILL, HARVARD, MIT, Virginia, Trinity,  Princeton, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford, Virginia, Lums, Nust, IBA, GIK, Reading, Surrey ......................   

*Zilli, tell ya what......what exactly is the state of preparation for The World Students Society  on  Global Elections?*......

What says Merium? Rabo? Haleema? Malala?  Saima? Dee? Seher? Hussain? Ali? Shahzaib? Eman?  Sharayar? Salar? Jordan? Faraz? Umair? Wajahat? Umer? Awais? Zaeem? Toby/China? Vishnu/India? 

What thinking do we have on organization and structures?...............    

THEY CAME to the subway station in scarves and face masks, protesting Quebec's new law requiring people to show their faces before gaining access to public services.

Veil Law rankles in Canada : A hot debate in Quebec, where multiculturalism is seen as eroding identity.

Warda Niali was among them, wearing her *niqab and hijab*.    

The Quebec woman, who converted to Islam 14 years ago, rarely takes the bus alone for fear that she will ''lose my nerves'' under a barrage of hateful comments. Now the new law it could get worse.

''Me, I don't want to live my life in monochrome,'' Ms. Niali, 33, told the crowd on Sunday in French. All she wanted, she said, was to be part of the rich Quebecois culture, which she described with the Canadian symbol of multiculturalism  -a mosaic.

''I want antifa, I want punks, I want straights,'' she added. ''I want L.G.B.T.Q. I want everyone in my society. Everyone has their place here.''

This is the case in most of Canada, which trumpets multiculturalism like a national anthem. 

But Quebec, the only French-majority province in an otherwise anglophone country, has always been different, never quite signing onto the idea of multiculturalism-

Which was viewed as another way of English-speaking Canada to devalue Quebec's culture and place in the country.

That difference has now been crystallized by the new law, which no one even knows how  -or whether-  to enforce.

''French Canadians in Quebec behave like psychologically embattled people,'' said Patrice Brodeur, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Montreal.''

They are a majority in the province, but a minority in the continent. That means they are often blind to the ways in which they end up being the victimizer, imposing itself on minority groups.''

The face-covering law, titled the State Religious Neutrality Law, is the current Quebec government's effort to address an angry debate that has blistered social ties, and dominated provincial politics for more than a decade. 

And it is not likely to settle the argument.

Just on Tuesday, a motion to debate removing a large crucifix that is prominently displayed on Quebec's National Assembly was blocked by the governing party-

The same party that created the face-covering law-

Illustrating again how emotionally charged the subject of religious symbols is in the province.

The debate centers on how traditionally white, Catholic, and French speaking Quebec can respect the religious and cultures of immigrants arriving in the province, while protecting its own identity,

Rejecting multiculturalism, the Quebecois speak instead of  ''interculturalism''  -a concept of protecting both french culture and minority rights. 

But until now, that concept has never been codified.

The first try came in 2008  by a government commission, which was created to respond to a so-called ''accommodation crisis,'' when conflicts between members of religious groups and local institutions made regular headline news.

One involved the Y.M.C.A., in Montreal, which replaced windows in its exercise room with frosted glass at the request of a synagogue next door so that orthodox students would not see women exercising.

Run by two respected academics, the commission issued 37 recommendations focused on increasing integration, reducing intolerance and secularizing the state.

Controversially, it suggested that all state officials in position of ''coercive power'' -like police officers and judges -be barred from wearing religious symbols, and that the large crucifix hanging prominently in the provincial legislative chambers be removed.

The National Assembly voted unanimously to keep the crucifix, and the report was shelved.

The report resurfaced in 2013, when a new provincial government expanding the ban on religious symbols to all state employees.

Though cast a bill on secularism, much of the debate stuck on voiles -the word used in Quebec for both hijabs and niqabs because Muslims are the largest non-Christian religious groups in the province, though only 3 percent of the population.

[As for those who cover their faces, local estimates peg the number of woman in the entire province of Quebec -population 8.39 million- who wear the niqab or burqa at 50 to 100.

*The role of women has played prominently in the debate*.

The Honor and  Serving of the latest  Operational Research on *World & Affairs* continues. Many thanks from The World Students Society to Catherine Porter for her writings, research and authorship.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students. Professors and Teachers of Canada, and then the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' World & Leaders '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless