Atheist Groups Begin New Project To Combat Discrimination

RNS reported last week that a group of four secular organizations has begun a new project called Openly Secular.  Its goal is to draw attention to incidents of anti-atheist discrimination in hopes of making bias against secularists socially unacceptable. Its first project is to gather stories from individual secularists about discrimination they have faced.

Towns, Schools In Quebec Oppose Proposed Secular Charter

According to CBC News yesterday, universities, school boards and municipalities in Quebec are increasingly saying they will refuse to enforce Quebec's Bill 60, the province's proposed charter of secularism (see prior posting) if it is adopted by the National Assembly. On Monday, the Town Council of the Montreal suburb of Hampstead passed a strong resolution (full text in linked CBC News article) declaring in part:

...The separation of church and state should not ... be confused with the persecution of religion by the state....

[W]e reject the notion that people who believe in a deity are somehow lesser citizens. We reject the notion that wearing an identifiable religious symbol that does not physically impede a person from performing his/her duties, is a basis for discrimination;  

... [S]hould this Charter, or any variation which violates the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. be passed by the National Assembly, the Town of Hampstead will not recognize it as a valid law. We will not comply. We will not be complicit with hatred, racism and intolerance.

European Court Hears Arguments In French Burqa Ban Challenge

Yesterday, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights heard oral arguments (video of full arguments) in S.A.S. v. France, (Application no. 43835/11).  As described in a press release from the Court:

The case concerns the complaint of a French national, who is a practising Muslim, that she is no longer allowed to wear the full-face veil in public following the entry into force, in April 2011, of a law prohibiting concealment of one’s face in public places.

(See prior related posting.)

Charter Affirming State Secularism Introduced Into Quebec Legislature

As previously reported, in August the ruling Parti Quebecois government in the Canadian province of Quebec announced its intention to introduce a secularist Charter of Quebec Values into the National Assembly.  Last Thursday it did so by introducing Bill 60, (full text) titled Charter Affirming the Values of State Secularism and Religious Neutrality and of Equality Between Women and Men, and Providing a Framework for Accommodation Requests.  Here is an excerpt from the Explanatory Notes summarizing the most important provisions of the bill:

Public bodies must, in the pursuit of their mission, remain neutral in religious matters and reflect the secular nature of the State. Accordingly, obligations are set out for personnel members of public bodies in the exercise of their functions, including a duty to remain neutral and exercise reserve in religious matters by, among other things, complying with the restriction on wearing religious objects that overtly indicate a religious affiliation. As well, personnel members of a public body must exercise their functions with their face uncovered, and persons to whom they provide services must also have their face uncovered when receiving such services.  The same rules apply to other persons, in particular to persons who exercise judicial functions, or adjudicative functions within the administrative branch, and to personnel members of the National Assembly.

Canadian Jewish Press reports on the concerns that various Jewish organizations have about the bill, including Section 38 that would allow the National Assembly to bar its members from wearing religious symbols.