Quebec values charter protest hits Montreal streets

Thousands of people, many wearing religious headgear,marched through downtown Montreal on Saturday to denounceQuebec's proposedcharter of values, which would bar public employees from wearingovert religious symbols in schools, hospitals and elsewhere in their line of work.

The protestgathered in Placemilie-Gamelinand then headed west for more than two kilometres through downtown to PlaceduCanada.

• Charter of Quebec values would ban religious symbols for public workers
• 5 things Quebec's values charter would do, and 5 it wouldn't
• Quebec charter of values plan could take a few pages from France, Don Murray says

Hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes and larger-than-average crucifixes all fall under the proposed ban, which was unveiled by thePartiQubcoisgovernment of Premier PaulineMaroisearlier this week and which sparked a heated debate in Quebec and across Canada.

NomanSafdar, a 24 -year-old Muslim from Montreal, held up a signthat read: "Multi-faith gathering for peace."

"This is a time for all religions to come together for what theybelieve in, " saidSafdar, an engineer."You can't go and impose things on people like this."

Another protester,SalmaAhmed, a 17-year-old high school studentwho wears a headscarf, said the proposed law is a violation ofreligious freedoms.

She said she's concerned it will affect her career choices andthose of her classmates.

"We're all really worried at school, " said Ahmed, who came tothe rally with friends who also wear headscarves.

Demonstrators were wearing a range of religious apparel, from turbans to veils to skull caps and prayer shawls.

Protest organizers said they wanted to denounce discrimination against various of Quebec's cultural and religious communities, as well as Islamophobia. They also vowed tochallenge any eventual charter of valuesin court.

AdilCharkaoui, a spokesman for the Quebec Collective AgainstIslamophobia, said Saturday's demonstration is only one of several planned actions against the proposed charter.

Discriminatory,opponents say

Whileopinion pollssuggest there is majoritysupport for the charter among Quebecers, mainly in the province's outlying regions, opponents have called it discriminatory.

till, members of some religious groupshave questioned the timingof today's demonstration.

DavidOuelletteof theCentre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said prior to the protest that it wasunlikely any Jewish groupwould attend.

"This demonstration was clearly planned without taking into account the participation of our community since it's Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar," he said.

Ouellette saidhis organization will avoid street demonstrations and try to talk directly to the government about its concerns over the charter.