Parents and students at an elementary school in Chelsea, Quebec, have voiced support to a Muslim teacher who has been removed from her teaching position because she wears a hijab.
“It’s shocking as a parent to see this come into action within our small little community,” parent Amanda DeGrace told CTV News reported.
“Now to have to have conversations we’ve had with our kids before, but actually have conversations that they’re able to connect the dots of something they’re seeing happening in real time and in real life, and it is very sad to me that we’re seeing Bill 21 come into action and the impact that it’s having on everyone involved.”
📚 Read Also: Hijabis in Small Towns; How Do We Guide our Daughters?
The Western Quebec School Board confirmed that a Grade 3 teacher at Chelsea Elementary School, located 20 kilometers north of Ottawa, was moved from her job as a teacher in the classroom because of Bill 21, Quebec’s law that bars some civil servants from wearing religious symbols.
The Muslim woman is still working at the school in “another function,” but the school board would not say what type of work she is now doing.
Montreal Gazette photo
Green Ribbons
Parents placed green ribbons on a fence outside the school as a sign of support for the teacher.
“As a way to help show support and solidarity with this teacher who has been affected by this Bill 21,” said DeGrace.
“We are asking people to please speak up. It’s really, really important as a community that we help to create change and we take action for that change to happen.”
Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey estimated Muslims in Canada to be around 1,053,945, or about 3.2% of the population, making Islam the second largest religion in the country after Christianity.
Quebec’s Bill 21 prohibits public-sector workers from wearing symbols such as hijabs, kippahs or turbans while at work.
Passed in June 2019, Bill 21 has drawn widespread criticism as a violation of religious freedom, with civil rights and religious groups saying it would disproportionately harm Muslim women, who are already marginalized.