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“I think that when Quebecers begin to actually contemplate the idea that provincial bureaucrats might be getting out a tape measurer to measure the size of people’s crosses, to see whether or not their earring is too obviously religious, I mean this gets to a point of almost Monty Python-esque absurdity,” Kenney said. “I don’t think the majority of Quebecers will support that kind of overbearing application of the power of the state.”

Kenney noted that many Quebecers, “even very serious Quebec nationalist commentators,” have criticized the proposal, and that it’s “inconsistent with Quebec’s best values.”

“This should not be seen as a Canada versus Quebec issue,” Kenney said. “I know that the separatist government would like to frame it that way.

“Let’s not forget that just a few decades ago, most of the hospital and schools in Quebec were largely being run by people — nuns — wearing head scarves and crosses,” he said. “That’s the tradition of Quebec itself, and it’s something that should be respected.”

The Bloc Quebecois ejected one of its few caucus members in the House of Commons last week, Montreal MP Maria Mourani, because she voiced opposition to the proposed Charter of Values, which must still pass the Quebec legislature.

In an interview with CTV’s Question Period, NDP leader Tom Mulcair vowed that the Opposition would work to fight the proposal, calling it “patently unconstitutional.

“For us, it’s untenable and it’s unbearable to think that a woman who’s working as an educator in a daycare centre would lose her job because she’s wearing a head scarf,” Mulcair said.

Although he called Bloc leader Daniel Paille’s decision to eject Mourani from caucus “pathetic,” he seemed to rule out the prospect of inviting her to join the NDP.

“It’s never come up,” Mulcair said. “I can’t see, frankly, how that would work out.”

Mulcair lost one of his MPs, Claude Patry, to the Bloc earlier this year.