This is bad policy on utilitarian grounds (it will likely isolate conservative Muslim women). However, it's a more nuanced issue than some are crediting.
The history of Quebec and of France (which also bans face coverings) need to be considered. Both are societies that vigorously uphold public secularism, owing to the role of the Catholic Church in maintaining oppressively conservative regimes in the past. Their societies put a higher value on public life being free of religious expression than they do on the freedom to practice religion in public.
Which is the same reason why Turkey had a ban on headscarves since the 1920s, when Ataturk founded the secular republic. Symbols of religious conservatism were considered backwards and a threat to the secular, forward-looking society that the leaders of Turkey were trying to build. The government of Turkey only removed the ban on headscarves in public institutions in 2011.
As for the bigotry angle, no doubt there's a strong strain of nativism in Quebec politics, and it's certainly not confined to the right. Many on Quebec's left consider the preservation of Quebec culture to be a core duty of the government, which is why the NDP lost its base in Quebec when Mulcair denounced the ban on the niqab.
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Originally Posted by Backlunds_socks
Ahh whites trying to dictate non whites again.
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Japan accepted 28 refugees last year. 28. In a country with 127 million people.