Urback: Quebec’s plan to ban schoolkids from wearing religious symbols is a silly but harmful distraction

Yep:

…The most glaring conceptual flaw of this proposal, however, ties back to the original rationale for implementing Bill 21; that is, that people in positions of authority cannot wear religious symbols because of the power and influence they have over others. None of that applies in the case of schoolchildren. Children are not making court judgments, or issuing classroom suspensions, or enforcing law. They are simply existing at school, as members of a purportedly free society where we allow people to wear whatever they want as long as it does not materially affect others. The PQ can attempt to claim that children are impressionable when it comes to their peers, and that is true, but it is also irrelevant: If religious symbols are banned in school based on a concern that a child might be enticed to pick up a Quran, they will have to be banned everywhere in society, because influence can be exerted anywhere – not just in a classroom.

The proposal is a silly, yet harmful, distraction from the many real problems Quebec’s new government is tasked with taking on. And unlike the PQ, children in schools don’t have the power, authority, or persuasive rigour to do anything about them.

Source: Quebec’s plan to ban schoolkids from wearing religious symbols is a silly but harmful distraction