Good afternoon Ottawa, here I am at the Attitudes toward minority religious symbols in Canada: exploring the impact of prejudices and principles.
Numerous legislations adopted or proposed to restrict the presence of religious symbols. i.e.Ban in schools (France)
Politics have an argument between prejudice and principles.
Prejudices: Winter (2014): "The Charter's Quebec values were shaped by vision of cultural exclusion and purity"
Principles: Laborde (2005) on the republican justification for the ban on religious symbols in France.
Literature and research have emerged on European cases, but various across countries (Helloing, 2014; Van der Noll, 2010)
There is
limited literature on the Canadian case
Research questions across the country:
What are the attitudes of Canadians toward the place of religious symbols in public institutions?
Hypothesis: respondents with negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities and more likely to find unacceptable the wearing of religious symbols.
Opposition to progressive values in Quebec increases and in the rest of the country it decreases.
There are two types of supporter of the Charter of Values
Charter supporters in favour of removing the crucifix are mostly PQ supporters, Francophones, Atheist
Charter supporters opposing removal of the crucifix are mostly Catholics, Anglophones, Religious people
Evidence that Quebec's reasonable accommodation and Charter debates brought together "strange bedfellows": Social progressives and those with prejudicial attitudes, Stephen White, professor at Concordia University says
Difference between Quebec and the rest of the country seems to be the product of different conceptions of liberalism. ("Enlightenment" vs "reformation" liberalism)
The more progressive or liberal you are, the less prejudice you have, says Stephen White
More work is needed on different conceptions of liberalism and attitudes toward religious symbols
The older you are the more opposed you are, says Antoine Bilodeau
Audience make questions: Is there any gender effect in these results?
There is more gender effect in Quebec than in the rest of the country.
