OTTAWA — While most Canadians firmly back the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and strongly support the idea of diversity, a new poll suggests a third of Canadians would ban their elected officials from wearing religious symbols. Nationally, 49 per cent of respondents said they would not favour such a ban, but 37 per cent said they would support it. The Leger Marketing poll was done to gauge public sentiment in light of a proposed secularism law in Quebec that would ban public servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols. Respondents who said they interact more with and are comfortable around religious minorities are less likely to support banning religious symbols for elected officials, the data suggests. ″(People) express broad appreciation of diversity and say that our society is tolerant and accepting of religious-minority customs and traditions, yet at the same time ... we, to a significant degree, don’t like the idea of politicians wearing religious symbols or signs.”

Source: Huffington Post May 25, 2019 17:15 UTC