Province reaches out to Quebec hijab-wearers

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This article was published 26/07/2019 (2650 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government has officially extended a hand to Quebecers fleeing the province’s hijab ban, though it’s unclear how many actually want to leave.

“We are actively seeking candidates who are proficient in both official languages, to assist in building and supporting this diverse… vibrant francophone community,” reads a letter Manitoba’s Civil Service Commission sent this week to Quebec’s professional associations, colleges and other agencies.

Premier Brian Pallister announced last week he’d start encouraging French-speaking civil servants to head west in the wake of a controversial Quebec law preventing public servants from wearing religious symbols.

Quebec’s Bill 21 forbids teachers, judges and police officers from wearing hijabs, turbans and kippas, but will allow headscarves that are not worn for a religious reason.

The legislation, ratified last month, is already facing a court challenge in Quebec from civil rights groups.

“If folks are feeling at all threatened by Bill 21 in Quebec, we have a place they can land where they don’t need to feel afraid,” Pallister said last week.

“We think that there may be people in Quebec right now who want to come to a province where we don’t have clothing police, (and) where their freedoms will be respected and their rights will be respected.”

The government’s letter does not reference religious freedom. It instead says nine per cent of Manitobans are “capable of speaking both French and English” and touts a reform to make more services available in French.

“We regularly connect with organizations to seek qualified candidates for vacancies, particularly in technical and specialized areas such as health care, social services, education, information technology, engineering, agriculture and finance,” reads the letter.

The premier’s office has not provided a ballpark figure of the number of jobs it needs to fill, but says it will reach out as vacancies arise. It says “approximately 100 training and professional organizations in Quebec” got the letter, but would not list them.

Professional organizations and unions representing Quebec teachers, engineers and bureaucrats said Friday they hadn’t heard of people planning to leave the province, though some noted the bill only became law in June, ahead of summer vacations.

Pallister’s comments caused a minor brouhaha in Quebec, with columnists linking the move to anti-Quebec sentiment and the Manitoba legislature’s 1990 rejection of the Meech Lake Accord, which would have encoded Quebec as “a distinct society.”

According to the Civil Service Commission annual report, Manitoba had 13,721 civil servants as of March 31.

That compares with 14,162 on the same date the previous year and 14,876 in 2016, just a few weeks before the PCs were elected.

The Tories have said they wanted to trim the civil service by 1,200 employees in the first three years of their term in office.

— with files from Jessica Botelho-Urbanski

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Civil Service Commission letter seeking Quebec public servants