Proposed new laws in the Canadian province of Quebec which would prohibit public employees from donning Sikh, Jewish and Muslim headwear or crucifixes in the workplace “feed an attitude of exclusion,” a leading intellectual has said.

Professor Charles Taylor, a renowned political philosopher, said that the new law, being put forward by ruling party, the Parti Quebecois, was “monstrous”.

Professor Taylor, who in 2007 helped head up a one year Commission of Inquiry into what would constitute “reasonable accommodation” for minority cultures in Quebec, described the proposal as “ a terrible move, a gratuitous move of exclusion”.

Speaking on the French language version of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he said that it was one thing to ban a teacher from wearing a burka, because an impediment to clear face-to-face communication could have an impact on other people — namely, the students.

But he condemned a wall-to-wall, draconian approach.

“It’s unprecedented. This will feed an attitude of exclusion. It will send a message to people who don’t feel comfortable here — who feel rejected in Quebec.”

He said as his commission toured the province, immigrants repeatedly told him that the reason they came here was for freedom.

“Now we’re slamming the door in their face,” Taylor said.

The idea of a blanket ban on the wearing religious symbols “is like something we would see in Putin’s Russia,” he said.

Reports suggest that the ruling party hopes to gain support at the ballot box by championing a position on secularism that polls have suggested has considerable support in the province.

A heated debate that erupted in the province over a recent ban on wearing turbans on soccer fields offered a preview of the what could be in the political pipeline for the national assembly’s fall session.

The turban ban was lifted by the Quebec Soccer Federation due to external pressure — but not before it made headlines around the world. Inside Quebec, Premier Pauline Marois rushed to the defence of the soccer federation and accused its detractors of Quebec-bashing.

A report in the Tuesday edition of local paper Journal de Montréal says the government is set to prevent employees in public institutions like schools and hospitals from wearing religious symbols such as turbans, niqabs, kippas, hijabs and highly visible crucifixes.

The approach is being roundly condemned by civil-rights experts, including prominent lawyer Julius Grey, who expects any such legislation to face court challenges under the Charter of Rights.

“The type of secularism that is being promoted goes beyond what is acceptable,” he said in an interview.

“Now, it doesn’t mean that the Supreme Court will not uphold it. Legal decisions aren’t made in a vacuum and maybe our atmosphere, our social climate, is changing to the point where this will be the future. I hope not.”

What’s less clear is how the policy will hold up in the long term, in two key arenas: the court system, and the ballot box.

The Parti Quebecois has in the past bluntly stated that it would gladly fight a legal battle up to the Supreme Court over the issue — and would hope to use the issue to stir up support for its main cause of separating from Canada.

But before getting there, there’s no guarantee the minority government could get the policy through the legislature or win an election on it.

As popular as the proposal might prove to be, other polls suggest that only a minuscule sliver of Quebec voters actually care about this as an election issue — and that what really drives the Quebec electorate are bread-and-butter issues like health care, education and the economy.