Quebec's Bill 94: What's Reasonable? What's Accommodation? And what's the Meaning of the Muslim Veil?

On March 24, 2010, Justice Minister Kathleen Weil introduced Bill 94, called An Act to Establish Guidelines Governing Accommodation Requests Within the Administration and Certain Institutions, in Quebec's National Assembly. If passed, the bill would limit Muslim women's ability to wear a face veil when requesting services from the government. Examination of the 51 briefs submitted to the National Assembly by members of the public in May, October, and November 2010 reveals three different frameworks witnesses used to make sense of the bill, defined by the goals they sought to achieve: upholding the ideals of the Quiet Revolution, encouraging legal clarity, and respecting the rights of religious believers. This article describes those frameworks and how they influenced the meanings witnesses attributed to the terms reasonable and accommodation and to the symbol of the Muslim veil itself.