Last week, I said that the first thing you see when you walk into Montreal City Hall is a poster of a veiled woman. It shocked you!
But you’ll be even more so when you learn what Valerie Plante’s office responded to my colleague Anouk Lebel:
“The figure of the citizens, including the veiled woman, is part of the same museum exhibit as Mayor Jean Trabio’s cross and mirrors.”
They want us to believe that a woman wearing a fancy religious symbol is an innocuous figure, an artifact among others! Like we put an orange cone, a hole or a syringe to symbolize the city of Montreal!
They take us to the suitcases!
Both systems demand removal
I would not be writing this article if one of the many examples of female citizens included a veiled woman. The problem is that a woman is the only representation in our town’s eyes. Of course Montreal is multicultural but there is no such thing as “many” when you only represent one culture, and you only represent the religious and strict aspect of this culture!
The Quebec Secular Movement wrote to the mayor demanding the removal of the poster honoring Act 21, which mandates “religious neutrality in fact and appearance” on municipalities. “The welcome poster clearly violates this rule because it supports a religion, while the municipality must respect all its citizens regardless of religion.”
However, I learned that PDF (For Women’s Rights), a feminist organization, had written to the mayor demanding its withdrawal.
“This huge poster clearly sends the message to the public that the city of Montreal is now promoting Muslim religion instead of Catholicism, which is complete nonsense that has the effect of discriminating against any non-Muslim woman. Even all those who do not adhere to Salafi ideology. In fact, you cannot ignore the fact that many women of Muslim culture do not wear the veil and fully support Quebec’s secularism law. It discriminates against a lot of women!
Montreal is
But that’s not all. In front of City Hall, two posters show veiled women in an exhibit of the Montreal Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Are we in Montreal or Montreal?
The exhibition was organized by the Department of Diversity and Social Inclusion and Bohra Manai. A former opponent of Law 21, the Commissioner for the Fight against Racism and Systemic Discrimination was “called to order” by the mayor in November 2023 because he “shared pro-Palestinian posts on Instagram, celebrating Hamas’s attacks on Israel.”
“Municipal officers and commissioners have a discretionary duty and we expect it to be respected. This message was conveyed to Ms. Manai,” Mayor Plante’s office indicated.
But what “right to exist” is the city of Montreal demonstrating by encouraging the wearing of the veil… in a “formal” way?
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