Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - March 2010
An Egyptian immigrant woman has been expelled from two different French language classes in Quebec after refusing to remove her niqab in both.
The situation escalated throughout 2009, to the point last November where officials at the College St. Laurent expelled the female student under authorization of the province’s Minister of Immigration Yolande James.
Officials at the school were concerned that they could not correctly monitor the student’s pronunciation, when she wore her niqab, a traditional veil that covers most all of a woman’s face except her eyes.
The school argues that since February of 2009, it has attempted to accommodate the student in many ways such as allowing her to have private instruction with female teacher, at which time she did agree to remove her niqab. The school was also willing to let her give oral presentations facing away from the rest of the students in her class.
After being expelled from the College of St. Laurent, the student tried enrolling in French language classes at a local immigrant community centre in Montreal. Again, the Quebec Government stepped in and had her expelled for refusing to the same reason.
“As we did last time, we told her that we have pedagogical objectives to meet in our French immersion courses, that they have to be taken with her face exposed,” said a spokesperson from the Minister’s office. “She refused to take off her niqab and she left the course.”
The student has filed a complaint with the human rights commission in Quebec.
Sources: The Gazette; Globe and Mail
