MONTREAL—Quebec’s proposed ban on the wearing of religious symbols has drawn criticism from across the country, but a new poll suggests it has strong support in the province.

The measures designed by the minority Parti Québécois government to underscore Quebec’s secular nature may also now have the political support necessary to pass the legislation into law in the coming months.

The so-called charter of Quebec values, to be unveiled in the coming weeks, proposes barring public servants from wearing veils, kippas, turbans and even crucifixes while at work. A leaked report last week said the measures would apply to anyone who draws their salary from the public purse: bureaucrats, lawyers, police officers, teachers, and even doctor and nurses.

No bill has been tabled yet but the initiative has already sparked intense debate, criticism and speculation about the social and legal ramifications of a crackdown on personal displays of religiosity.

Still, the PQ plan got a boost Monday with the results of an opinion poll showing that two or of every three respondents believed there are “too many accommodations” for religious groups in Quebec. A majority of French-speakers surveyed said they backed the ban while a majority of anglophones and allophones, whose mother tongue is neither French nor English, were strongly opposed to the proposed measures.

But with a provincial election likely less than one year away, Premier Pauline Marois’ party appears to be on solid footing with potential voters — a conclusion that was confirmed Monday when third-party Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault said his caucus would support the broad themes of the government’s plan.

“Quebec has avoided dealing with this sensitive question for too long and left public organizations the impossible job of working without a framework,” said Legault, a former PQ minister “It’s up to politicians to do this work.”

Legault’s party fashions itself as fiscally conservative and one that is led in policy decisions by common sense rather than the province’s traditional federalist-sovereigntist divide. But despite dismissing the Marois government’s plan as “too radical” the CAQ leader put forward a nearly identical proposal that differs only by degree.

Instead of banning religious-themed articles of clothing in any workplace where salaries are paid by the provincial government, Legault would limit the ban to occupations that hold positions of authority, such as judges, prison guards, police officers and school teachers.

“Contrary to the Parti Québécois we don’t think that a nurse or an office worker who wears a veil should be barred from doing so,” he said.

The CAQ proposal is more in line with a 2008 report on how to handle Quebec’s debate over reasonable accommodation, which recommended public employees in a position of authority should be barred from wearing religious symbols, but did not include primary and secondary school teachers in its list of occupations.

The parliamentary commission led by historian Gerard Bouchard and philosopher Charles Taylor, also recommended removing the cross that is hung in Quebec’s national assembly — a suggestion that has been rejected by politicians of all stripes because of the province’s strong Catholic roots.

Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard has accused Marois of trying to divide Quebecers with the legislation, but has not laid out his own proposal for handling religious accommodations in the province.

Marois said in a weekend speech that she envisioned the charter of values along the lines of the province’s language laws — divisive at first but considered essential to the survival of the French language in the long run.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, who had earlier avoided commenting on the proposal, calling it a trial balloon, now says he opposes anything that might scapegoat certain kinds of Quebecers.

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“I don’t want to see scapegoating, particularly of Muslim women,” Mulcair told reporters on Parliament Hill on Monday. “That seems to be one of the particular targets here. So we’ll wait and see what’s in it.”

With a file from The Canadian Press

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