openly wearing a religious symbol boils down to being a form of advertising. Government employees should not wear anything that is a form of advertising (which also should include company logos on clothing) and represent the government and its services. Some schools have solve for this advertising issue by imposing a uniform. Maybe that would be a good idea for public servants as well.

I like the article. It is important to know what kind of delusions you are voting into power.

That is a different take an possibly a good point. Transparency and truth in advertising I guess.

Here in the States I'd love, in theory, to see the Quebecois level of separation between church and state, but this seems heavy-handed even to me. Some person wearing a little cross pendant doesn't imply state endorsement of that person's religion, and besides, you can't read people's minds. The pendant might have no religious significance, it may be purely sentimental, a gift from dear old Grandma or an old boyfriend. One could imagine witch hunts of all sorts in the name of purging government service of the slightest whiff of religious sentiment. That just sounds paranoid and snow-flakey, and an invitation to all sorts of detailed rules and a new class of hall monitors to enforce them.

Far more effective and far less divisive would be to let public notions of taste have their way. If the citizens of Quebec think religious symbols are gauche, then they'll complain about / not elect / refuse to deal with people with [gasps and clutches pearls] a cross pendant on.

It's not about banning all religious symbols in Quebec.
It's about public servants representing the government, they should not display religious symbols.
They can wear whatever they want when not wearing a uniform.

It's not hate, it's not discrimination. It's mistakes from the past we don't want to make again.
If you think Quebec is a white Christian state now, you should have seen us about sixty years ago when we were like a reclusive Islamic state. Our history books call that era the "grande noirceur", the great darkness. An era that was followed by the "révolution tranquille" where our schools, our health system and our political institutions were taken off the hands of the catholic church and into those of the secular society. And bill 21 on state secularism is in straight line with this ongoing process.
There are many jobs that comes with a dress code. I think people from all races and religions are welcome to work for our government. They just have to leave their religious stuff home. I can't believe I have to say this on Agnostic.com!
I think Canada is far more racist that Quebec. If you Canadians call us racists, it's just that we are actually resisting to your racism, your orangist WASP-supremacist feeling of misplaced superiority that seems to entitle you to bash us mercilessly all day long. That, and the fact that we don't fall for your phony multiculturalism that actually looks more to me like an unofficial cast system and an hypocrite melting pot.

good article.....
Yes, I would rather know......
I don't think this is what the legislation is about tho
this is obviously a racist anti Muslim legislation, motivated by racism, and a desire by the white christian state to keep people they don't want out.
this legislation obviously targets religions that have more obvious symbols and atire than christianity
the target is not politacians, because how many elected polaticians are there actually, a few hundred at most. the idea with this legislation is to prevent people who are not christian from getting jobs in the public sector.
i doubt any christian wearing a cross or rosery will be asked to do anything other than tuck the symbol inside their clothing.
this is something that has very little effect on christians but a huge effect on people from many other religions, this will effectivly end the career of any Sikh police officers, just to name one group

the legislation may as well be called the "keep Quebec white" bill
just disgusting

I'm a Quebecer, I didn't vote for the party of Prime Minister François Legault last october. But I think his bill 21 about state secularism is definitely a good thing, a way to achieve a better separation between religions and the government. I think it's not much more than a dress code for some government workers while they're on duty. To ensure everybody's religious freedom, the state must be neutral.

[montrealgazette.com]

I haven't read the piece, but I'm against a ban. That falls into the category of free speech or personal rights.

If and when religious beliefs infringe on the rights of others, that's when I take issue with it. Banning signs won't make anyone believe any less.

At some point, they could legislate that no one can wear an agnostic.com T-shirt.
It could fall under a "belief" that can offend others.