By MARIAN SCOTT, - Most Quebecers and Canadians agree that women wearing the niqab or burqa should not receive government services, hospital care or university instruction, a new Angus Reid poll shows.
Ninety-five per cent of Quebecers support a proposed provincial law barring the face veil from government offices, schools and other publicly funded institutions, says the poll, provided exclusively to The Gazette yesterday.
In the rest of Canada, three out of four people give the thumbs up to Bill 94, tabled Wednesday by the Charest government. The bill would require all public sector employees to have their faces uncovered, as well as any citizen using government services, for example, someone applying for a medicare card or paying her car registration.
Nationally, four out of five Canadians support the bill.
Mario Canseco, vice-president of public affairs for the pollster, said the survey shows an unusually high level of support for a government measure. "It's very rare to get 80 per cent of Canadians to agree on something," he said.
"With numbers like this, there is not going to be much of a controversy over the legislation in Quebec or anywhere else in the country," he added.
Canseco said one reason support for the niqab ban is higher in Quebec than the rest of Canada is the ongoing debate over reasonable accommodation. The argument over accommodating minorities has heated up in recent weeks in the wake of the barring of an Egyptian woman from government language classes for wearing the niqab.
Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, attributed the poll results to the emotional climate the surrounds the niqab issue.
"They are giving it based on their emotional response to a woman covering her face, which is understandable," Elmenyawi said.
"It is associated with all the negative stereotypes that have been on the airwaves," he said. Elmenyawi said the survey could have produced different results if the niqab debate had been conducted in a calmer atmosphere and with more empathy.
Outside Quebec, the poll showed, Albertans are most likely to support the veil ban, with 82 per cent approving the bill; followed by Ontario, with 77 per cent support; the Atlantic provinces (73 per cent) and British Columbia (70 per cent). Support for withholding government services from those wearing the face veil was lowest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, at 65 per cent.
"It's one of the few times when Quebec and Alberta are on the same page," Canseco said, noting that Quebecers and Albertans differ sharply on many issues, like the environment.
Only a handful of Quebec Muslims wear the niqab, an opaque face veil with a slit for the eyes, or the burqa, a long gown that also covers the face, with a mesh panel through which the wearer peers.
Eighty-three per cent of Quebecers strongly approve of the niqab law and 12 per cent moderately approve of it. Five per cent of Quebecers oppose it, according to the poll, conducted online among 1,004 adults on Thursday and yesterday.
The respondents were selected randomly among Angus Reid Forum panellists. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Across Canada, men were slightly more likely to approve the niqab bill than women (83 per cent vs. 77 per cent) and people over 55 were more likely to favour it than those under 35 (86 per cent vs. 69 per cent).
Bloc Québécois supporters favoured the bill most (95 per cent), along with Conservatives (86 per cent) and Liberals (81 per cent). Three-quarters of NDP supporters agreed with the bill.
A separate poll by Léger Marketing for the Association of Canadian Studies, part of which was also provided exclusively to The Gazette, shows that Quebecers are uncomfortable with the Muslim hijab in schools, but want to keep the crucifix in the National Assembly and allow the cross in classrooms.
Asked whether Muslim girls should be allowed to wear the hijab (headscarf) in public schools, 75 per cent of respondents said no, while 20 per cent said yes.
However, 58 per cent of Quebecers want to keep the crucifix above the seat of the president of the National Assembly whereas 33 per cent said it should be relocated.
As for crucifixes in public school classrooms, 54 per cent said they should be allowed vs. 41 per cent who said they should not.
"For those who say Quebec wants a société laïque (secular society), this poll shows they do have preferences," said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies. "Crucifixes are fine but the hijab is not," he added.
The survey was conducted online among 1,001 respondents March 21-24. Results are accurate within 3.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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Overwhelming support for law banning niqab
As you may know, Quebec has introduced legislation which requires people to show their faces in order to receive government services, for reasons of identification, security and communication. Under this new legislation, Muslim women who wear a niqab would not be able to consult a doctor in a hospital or attend classes in a university unless they remove their face veils. From what you have seen, read or heard, do you approve or disapprove of this law?
Region Gender
Total BC AB MB/SK ON PQ ATL Male Female
Strongly approve 59% 48% 56% 43% 51% 83% 46% 64% 53%
Moderately approve 21% 22% 26% 22% 26% 12% 27% 19% 24%
Moderately disapprove 11% 15% 12% 18% 12% 3% 17% 8% 13%
Strongly disapprove 5% 10% 4% 12% 6% 2% 3% 6% 5%
Not sure 4% 5% 2% 5% 4% 1% 7% 5% 4%
mascot@thegazette.canwest.com