Teachers' union calls on PQ to revise secular charter

A Quebec teachers union is calling on the Quebecgovernment to revise its stance on secularism, particularly in the school system.

The Montreal-based Fdration autonome de l'enseignement represents 30,000 teachers in the French-language school system.

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The unions president Sylvain Mallette spoke at a Wednesday morning news conferencesaying the government should focus its plans forsecularismon institutions, and not individuals.

Mallette said the union saw no harm in teachers and students wearing religious symbols like the kippa, hjiab or the Catholic cross.

"Can we convert students just by wearing a cross?" he asked rhetorically.

Mallette also drove home the unions request that the government remove the cross from the national assembly.

"There will still be a fundamental inconsistency if the elected officials adopt a secular charter under a religious symbol," he said.