The case of a fully veiled Egyptian immigrant who reportedly quit her French-as-a-second-language class at a Montreal CEGEP sooner than show her face to male classmates, then filed a human rights complaint, hardly comes as good news. But the manner in which she was treated shows that — broadly speaking — Canada has hit the right balance in its treatment of religious minorities demanding special treatment.
Much as one might abhor the all-covering burka, also known as a niqab — as a symbol of Islamic fundamentalism, of deliberate separation from the larger society, or both — the unidentified woman was at least out of the house, attempting to learn French (as opposed to certain notorious European cases, in which whole families of women are kept behind closed doors for years, or even decades). And the CEGEP’s actions were very much in the spirit of Canadian inclusivity: She was allowed to wear the burka; one-on-one activities with the instructor were conducted in an isolated corner of the classroom; and she would give oral presentations to the class with her face turned. Such policies do little to support the contention, made by some activist groups, that Muslims face “Islamophobia” as soon as they go public with their faith in this country.
At the same time, we were happy to see that the CEGEP did not give into every demand. At a certain point, the woman’s alleged expectation that she be insulated from even the most incidental forms of social contact with male students was deemed ridiculous, and she was given an ultimatum — compromise, or drop the class. In other words, the CEGEP recognized limits to what is now commonly called “reasonable accommodation,” and it enforced them.
A similar case in Quebec City is also instructive. When three burka-wearing immigrants enrolled in a French-language class at a CEGEP in Sainte-Foy, a counsellor asked if they’d be willing to show their faces during the classes. They agreed. At first, Le Soleil reports, they continued to hide their faces in the halls, but eventually they abandoned the facial coverings altogether.
There’s a larger lesson here. The issue of “reasonable accommodation” of immigrants has been percolating in Quebec since 2007. During this time, it has been assumed that the job of integrating immigrants — and, in particular, dealing with culturally assertive Muslims — rests with government. But as the Sainte-Foy case shows, ordinary people acting in good faith often can prevail even without the intervention of politicians, human rights commissions and hysterical culture warriors.