Green Party allows its candidates to have pro-Bill 21 stances

Elizabeth May

Green Party allows intolerance!

NATIONAL Council of Canadian Muslims Executive Director Mustafa Farooq on Monday called the Green Party’s position that its candidates can have pro-Bill 21 stances in Quebec “unacceptable.”
An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State (often referred to as Bill 21) was passed by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government earlier this year, and prohibits Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs, among others, from wearing religious symbols and becoming prosecutors, teachers, police officers, etc.

“I’m sorry, [Green Party Leader] Ms. [Elizabeth] May, but I find that position unacceptable,” said Farooq, “There is nothing conscionable about second-class citizenship. When we say that people who work with us can say that some of our colleagues, like a Jewish colleague wearing a kippah, in 2019, couldn’t become a prosecutor, that’s unacceptable”.

May, who addressed a townhall hosted by the NCCM on Friday (September 6) said that she could not change her party policy on this and added that while many Green Party candidates are opposed to Bill 21, “they’d rather spend the election campaign, frankly, talking about the climate emergency.”
NCCM said it finds it unacceptable that candidates would shy away from talking about one of the biggest attacks on civil liberties in Canada in a decade.