Then yes, it does affect them as well, I don't understand how people are so dumbfounded by that fact.
The only way Stats Can manages to make it seem like Quebec is more Christian than most provinces is by asking a biased question.
In the census:
`What is this person's religion?
Indicate a specific denomination or religion even if this person is not currently a practising member of that group.`
Well, considering our Catholic history and the fact that children were pretty much all getting baptized until the 90s, what do you think is the answer to that?
The Australian census has a similar question. "None" is not an option, though I don't think it's a mandatory question (though it's hard to get meaningful data out of blank versus a stated "none")
For this law specifically, it didn't when it was first proposed. I was living in Montreal at the time and there were protests. The provincial government said the cross is "not a religious symbol" or something similar.
Buddy, I've been living in Quebec longer than the average user on here has been alive and politics is one of my main interests in life.
They didn't want to remove the cross in the national assembly at first but they never considered the cross to not be a religious sign for the public servants mentioned in the law's text.
How about wearing a wedding ring on the left hand 3rd finger? Since the 9th century, that’s primarily been a strongly Christian tradition, therefore arguably a symbol of Christianity?
The catch is that the separation of state and religion is seen differently in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada. In Quebec everyone is made equal by getting religion out of public institutions (ex.: a judge can't wear a religious sign), in Canada everyone is made equal by being allowed to ask for religious exemptions (ex.: turban wearers don't have to wear a helmet to ride a motorcycle in Alberta).
Quebec passed a law to prevent certain public servants from wearing religious signs (teachers, judges, police officers...) and the rest of Canada didn't agree with them.
Not everyone in Québec is a French Canadian. There are also French Canadians in the rest of Canada.
But I'm guessing laïcité is a concept you would like to learn more about before making sweeping judgements? Laïcité isn't perfect, but neither is exemptionism. Laïcité fails people who want to completely freely express their religion, where exemptionism fails those who want to be free from the religion of others.
Have spend time in religious-conflict zones, I'm personally biased towards laïcité. You can imagine Muslims and Jews might want some freedom from seeing symbols of the other's religion in public institutions right now with the ongoing conflict. Similar feeling for Christians, Orthodox, and Muslims after the Yugoslavian wars; or Christians and Muslims in sub-saharan African; or Sunnis and Shias on Yemen; or anyone who's not Deobandian Sunni in Afghanistan.
Exemptionism is great for people who haven't experienced religious persecution. Québécois.e.s feel, real or precived, that they were persecuted by their own religion. This led to the silent revolution, and has a lasting effect of voting in favour of more restrictive, over open, religious freedom laws.
I hope this helps, and of you have examples of which darker skin religions do not get to keep their culture, I would be interested to hear. My own burrough has large Haitian, Jamaican, and Côté d'ivoirian communities; and a fledgling laosian one.
As an immigrant that came to the West Coast I appreciate what you say here as it helps me (us) understand better the reasoning behind the banning of religious symbols in Quebec.
No catch, but some people don't like that it affects women who wear hijabs.
Frankly, I'm not even Quebecois and I agree with the law. If you're going for your driver's test and you're obviously gay, you're going to feel pretty nervous if your tester is wearing some fundie garb, whether it's a hijab or a cross around their neck. Worse still if you're going to apply for welfare.
Yes the nudists finally won a victory. All that garden of eden shame stuff is finally gone. Judges, teachers and cops no longer wear any garment whose purpose is modesty.
Shame and modesty are of course punishment from God because of Eve having eaten the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.