Quebec’s values charter not reinforced by fading U.S. religious garb statutes

A controversial values charter that would strip Quebec public employees of the right to wear religious symbols and clothing at work is at the centre of the Parti Quebecois election platform, and is expected to play a key role in the outcome of the April 7 election.

The Quebec values charter would restrict public sector works from wearing or displaying conspicuous religious symbols, such as head scarves and turbans, while still allowing small pendants such as crosses. The charter has been a divisive issue since it was introduced last year, and it remains so despite protestations by the PQ that similar laws exist elsewhere in North America.

PQ MLA Bernard Drainville has previously defended the introduction of such measures claiming that similar laws ban the wearing of religious garb in Nebraska and Pennsylvania.

As a campaign strategy, it probably seems like a strong move: This extreme and controversial law we are promoting has been done before, making it neither extreme nor controversial.

But the reality of the U.S. laws actually underlines the issue, not erases it. Nebraska's law has been forgotten, Pennsylvania's law has been challenged and similar laws elsewhere in the U.S. have been abandoned.

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According to the Canadian Press, Nebraska's sudden inclusion in the Quebec election debate actually surprised Nebraskans, who have forgotten the century-old law even existed.

None of the politicians, historians, legal analysts, activists or school board members contacted by the news agency were familiar with the law.

The Nebraska law states:

The law was first passed in 1919 and focused on putting an end to those Catholic school-teaching nuns and their habit of wearing habits. Pennsylvania has a similar rule against teachers wearing religious clothing on the books, dating back to 1949.

That law has also faced stiff protest. In 1991, a Muslim substitute teacher contested the garb statute and lost. In 2003, a Catholic instructional assistant was suspended for refusing to comply with a request to remove or conceal a cross hanging from her necklace.

According to a study by University of Massachusetts history professor Daniel Gordon, the teacher won the case on the basis she was not technically a teacher, and therefore not covered by the statute. But the judge went on to say the garb statute was discriminatory and was "unlikely" to survive constitutional scrutiny.

[ Related: Years of bitterness cloud latest bargaining round between B.C. and teachers ]

Further undermining the PQ's stance that their controversial values charter already exists in the U.S. is that a similar religious garb law was recently abandoned in Oregon. State Gov. Ted Kulongoski officially repealed the law in 2010, lifting a ban that stopped teachers from wearing head scarves, yarmulkes and other religious attire.

"Repeal is consistent with Oregon tradition that honors individual beliefs, values diversity, and promotes tolerance," Kulongoski wrote at the time, according to Oregon Live.

Nebraska’s religious garb statute is being held up as a shield for Quebec’s own charter, but it is already considered antiquated and unconstitutional by many in the state. One politician called it a “dead-letter law,” meaning that if was ever challenged it would likely fall. Similar laws have elsewhere been either challenged or abandoned. Yet the Parti Quebecois is pointing that direction as evidence of the value charter’s actual value.

Maybe time to point somewhere else.

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