In their Sunday night French-language debate in Montreal, four NDP leadership aspirants gingerly navigated the minefield of Quebec’s Bill 62, nearing enactment, which will ban face coverings in the delivery and reception of publicly-funded services. Bill 62 is essentially a revival of Bill 94, a face-cover ban proposal tabled in 2010, but killed in a Liberals election defeat. So while Selley’s criticism of Ashton for soft-pedalling her opposition to Bill 62 for political gain was warranted, his follow-on conflation of Islamophobia with Bill 62 is unfair. And if Islam were the target, why would Bill 62 give the hijab—well tolerated in Quebec—a pass? Then they may conclude that Quebec is walking the walk on gender equality for all Quebec women, where the NDP only half-heartedly talks the talk.

Source: National Post August 29, 2017 14:48 UTC