The Canadian Press Kindergarten teacher Haniyfa Scott gives a lesson during class in Montreal on April 4, 2019.

MONTREAL — Immigrants and visible minorities are noticing how some of the most significant pieces of legislation introduced by the Coalition Avenir Quebec government since it took power last October have something in common: the bills disproportionately affect them. Quebec's Bill 21, which bans some public sector employees including teachers and police officers from wearing religious symbols, has drawn widespread criticism since Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled it last month. The bill targets all religious symbols. But Haniyfa Scott, a teacher at Montreal's Carlyle Elementary School, says it is Muslim women who wear the hijab — as she does — who will feel it the most. "I'd like for the government to live a week in the shoes of all the people they are targeting," she said in an interview Monday. Watch: Demonstrators form human chain outside school to protest Bill 21

While the secularism bill has grabbed a lot of attention, two other major pieces of legislation addressing immigration levels and the province's taxi industry have had outsized effects on the province's minority communities. Transport Minister Francois Bonnardel's Bill 17, tabled last month, overhauls a taxi industry that is heavily composed of immigrants. Joseph Naufal, the director of a taxi company in east-end Montreal who also works for the industry association, said "easily 90 per cent" of Montreal taxi drivers are first- or second-generation immigrants. The drivers say the Quebec bill, which abolishes a permit system, will drive many of them into bankruptcy. Drivers who blocked downtown Montreal streets last week in protest said Bill 17 mainly affects immigrants who took out loans to finance their permits. If the bill is adopted and the permits lose their value, drivers say the compensation offered by the province will not cover their deep debts. 'No justification' to cancel 18,000 immigration applications: lawyer Abdelahk Bentarcheh, 36, who immigrated four years ago from Morocco, said that as a taxi driver, he feels targeted by Bill 17, and as a Muslim he feels targeted by Bill 21. "The government is trying to radicalize the public's opinion on Islam," Bentarcheh said of the secularism bill. Another bill affecting the immigrant community was tabled in February by Jolin-Barrette. Bill 9 creates a legal framework granting the government the authority to be more selective over who receives permanent residency in Quebec. Shortly after introducing the bill, Jolin-Barrette signalled the government would throw out a backlog of 18,000 immigration applications from people around the world, including roughly 3,700 applications from people already residing in the province. The government told them to reapply under a new system.

The Canadian Press People hold up signs during a demonstration in Montreal on April 7, 2019 in opposition to the Quebec government's newly tabled Bill 21.