Article content continued

As a growing number of municipalities in France moves to ban the burkini, a full-body swimsuit worn by some Muslim women, it was a matter of time before the question arose in Quebec.

On Wednesday, the CAQ called on the provincial government to ban the body-covering garment. Nathalie Roy, CAQ critic for secularism, called the burkini an instrument of oppression of women and urged the Liberal government to examine ways to outlaw it as well as other body-covering Muslim garments.

Speaking to 98.5 FM host Paul Arcand Thursday, Roy said she realizes there are few if any burkinis worn on Quebec’s beaches and in its pools. (The Journal de Montréal ran two columns and a news story on the issue Thursday, all of them illustrated with photos from overseas.)

But that is beside the point, Roy said.

“It’s the symbolism,” she said. “It’s a symbol of radical Islam, a radical Islam that is trying to take root in Quebec.” Other politicians are too “politically correct” to confront the issue, she said.

Not the PQ’s Jean-François Lisée, one of the architects of the Charter of Values. On his Facebook page, Lisée called for a debate on the prohibition of burkinis, burkas and niqabs, leaving little doubt where he stands on the question.

“If our society tolerates in the public place this obvious manifestation of the oppression of women, it confirms that this oppression is acceptable and accepted,” he wrote.

Lisée, who is seeking to replace Pierre Karl Péladeau as PQ leader, also argued that burkas should be banned on security grounds.