Canada: Islamic veil allowed in legal hearing

04.10.2018

A judge cannot refuse to take testimony from a woman because she is wearing an Islamic veil, a court ruled on Wednesday.

A citizen may wear any religious attire in a courtroom so long as their "religious beliefs are sincere" and they do not "conflict with another person's constitutional rights," the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled unanimously.

Montrealer Rania El-Alloul, a Muslim, was expelled from a courtroom in 2015 for wearing a hijab.

Judge Eliana Marengo of the Court of Quebec had cited a court ruling that every person must be "appropriately dressed" and compared El-Alloul's headscarf "to a hat or sunglasses."

But Marengo did not take into account the right of El-Alloul "to religious expression," the three appeals judges ruled.    (AFP)

More on this topic
Bill 62 – Quebec′s burka ban: Veiled bigotryCanada lawmakers pass anti-Islamophobia motion Interview with Ingrid Mattson: ″Muslim youngsters need genuine role models″
Home
Print
Newsletter
MoreAll Topics
In submitting this comment, the reader accepts the following terms and conditions: Qantara.de reserves the right to edit or delete comments or not to publish them. This applies in particular to defamatory, racist, personal, or irrelevant comments or comments written in dialects or languages other than English. Comments submitted by readers using fantasy names or intentionally false names will not be published. Qantara.de will not provide information on the telephone. Readers' comments can be found by Google and other search engines.

In brief

More

Most Recent Photo Essay

Rayann Sukkar, citizen journalist: my name's Rayan Sukkar and for the last two years I've been working on the Campji online platform. I'm from the Shatila refugee camp, but I report from other camps as well. Up to 40,000 people currently live here, including Palestinian refugees and an increasing number of Syrians who have fled their country's civil war

Citizen journalists in Lebanon: Looking for stories in the refugee camp

Rayan Sukkar (24) lives in Lebanon's Shatila refugee camp. She was born and grew up there and works as a citizen reporter for the online platform Campji.