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QUEBEC — Mayor of Quebec City Régis Labeaume is calling for the burqa and other face-covers to be banned from public spaces.

Labeaume reacted Monday to the Couillard government’s decision to extend the application of Bill 62 on religious neutrality to municipalities and transportation companies. His statement also comes in the aftermath of demonstrations by groups close to the extreme right and extreme left in the capital, where protesters had their faces masked.

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“Personally, for me, one should not be allowed to hide one’s face in a public space,” he said in a news conference at city hall. “The face-covering of a protester (…) and the burqa and the niqab are all the same thing.”

He added that he had difficulty understanding why covering a face at a demonstration is legal in Canada.

He said he agreed with the French law that prohibits wearing the burqa in a public space. According to him, wearing the Islamic veil runs counter to the principles of equality between women and men.