As Canada’s Globe and Mail reports, “Quebec’s minority government has laid out a plan to crack down on religious accommodation in the province.”  The  article by Les Perreaux and Ingrid Peritz continues that the ban “forbids public servants, with some exceptions, from wearing the Sikh turban, the Muslim hijab, the Jewish kippa or a large Christian crucifix.”

While not yet law, the  article includes an image released by the Quebec government with “dos and don’ts”:

The Quebec Government site with images is here.

Again, the policy is in the proposal stage.   The overall notion seems to be that ostentatious religious symbols are disallowed while un-ostentatious religious symbols are allowed.  Of course, the value judgment of “ostentatious” depends upon cultural conditions and “norms” (as I further argue in Dressing Constitutionally).

Moreover, the problem of measuring even seemingly objective qualities such as size is a fraught one.   The reporters quote the head of a teachers’ union as stating:

The rules about religious attire will impose a burden on school principals. He said they evoke the days when principals went around measuring the length of students’ skirts to ensure they met school rules.

“They will have to make sure: Are these earrings too big? Is that ring too big? This is wasted energy.”

(H/T Sonia Lawrence)