Support for Bans on Religious Symbols in Canada: Exploring Similarities and Differences with Europe

Debates have multiplied in Europe over the place of minority religious symbols in public spaces. For many commentators, such bans on minority religious symbols are rooted in prejudices toward racial and religious minorities, especially Muslims. For others, they are rooted in principles, such as the need for secularism and to protect the equality between men and women. A growing number of studies investigate the sources of support for restrictions on minority religious symbols in the public sphere. Not surprisingly, most of these studies focus on Europe.

            The place of religious symbols has nevertheless been the object of public debates outside of Europe. Canada is one such case, more specifically the province of Quebec, where in 2013 the provincial government introduced a legislative proposal to prohibit public sector employees from wearing religious symbols such as the hijab, the turban or the kippa. In comparison, in the rest of the Canada, the issue has not attracted as much attention (except maybe for the issue of the Niqab during the current 2015 federal election). Building on the lessons drawn from European studies, this paper proposes to examine the level and sources of support for banning minority religious symbols in Canada. Using data from the Provincial Diversity Project, a survey of 10,000 Canadians conducted in the winter 2014, the paper aims to compare the situation in Quebec and in the rest of Canada, and to discuss how similar or dissimilar the public motivations for a ban on religious symbols are with those in Europe.