Show your face for health care, Quebec rights commission says
March 17, 2010
THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL–Women wearing religious face coverings aren't entitled to special treatment when receiving certain government services, the Quebec human rights commission said in a report likely to bolster attempts to curb religious accommodations in the province.
The rights commission has released a series of highly anticipated suggestions for dealing with accommodation issues faced by Quebec's health insurance provider.
In the one likely to garner the most attention, the commission declared that women wearing niqabs or burqas have no right to demand to be identified by female health-care workers.
It said lifting a veil for a male worker to check their identity against a medicare card takes little time and, moreover, takes place in a neutral setting.
The rulings – which are not legally binding – come as the so-called reasonable accommodation debate heats up again in Quebec, causing political headaches for Premier Jean Charest's government.
The debate has consumed a tremendous amount of attention for what amounts to a minuscule number of cases.
Of the more than 118,000 visitors to the Quebec health board's Montreal office in 2008-09, only 10 cases involved niqab-wearers who asked for special dispensation. There were zero such cases among the 28,000 visitors to the Quebec City service centre over the same time period.
Toronto Star
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