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Quebec’s new secularism law is divisive, unnecessary and contrary to the values taught in English schools, Russell Copeman, the executive director of the Quebec English School Boards Association, said on Monday.

On a practical level, the law will be very difficult, if not impossible to enforce, he said.

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“The law creates various categories of employees who will not be able to wear religious symbols and contains a grandfather clause (for current teachers provided they don’t change job titles or school boards).”

There could easily be a situation where a new principal posted to a school sees an employee wearing a hijab, but does not know whether the employee is a teacher, a school psychologist, a lunch monitor or an after-school monitor.

“Are you going to stop someone in the hall and say, ‘Are you a teacher or a vice-principal and when were you hired?’ It’s quite ludicrous, actually.”

He said he is also worried about an amendment that covers the monitoring of the new law.