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Canada: Islamic veil allowed in legal hearing
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Veiled defendant Jennifer Vincenza M (R) stands next to her lawyer Sarah Strack as she waits for the beginning of her trial on January 21, 2015 in Duesseldorf, western Germany. A trial against two woman and a man accused of funding the Islamic State group started at Duesseldorf's Higher Regional Court.
FEDERICO GAMBARINI / POOL / AFP (AFP/Federico Gambarini)
A judge cannot refuse to take testimony from a woman because she is wearing an Islamic veil, a court ruled on Wednesday.
A citizen may wear any religious attire in a courtroom so long as their "religious beliefs are sincere" and they do not "conflict with another person's constitutional rights," the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled unanimously.
Montrealer Rania El-Alloul, a Muslim, was expelled from a courtroom in 2015 for wearing a hijab.
Judge Eliana Marengo of the Court of Quebec had cited a court ruling that every person must be "appropriately dressed" and compared El-Alloul's headscarf "to a hat or sunglasses."
But Marengo did not take into account the right of El-Alloul "to religious expression," the three appeals judges ruled.
