A Muslim woman at a Montreal college refused to remove her niqab during a language class for new immigrants last fall. The school determined that the garment inhibited her ability to communicate openly with her classmates and receive adequate assessment. The administration made a few attempts to find compromises but ultimately gave up and expelled the student.

The student has since filed a complaint with Quebec’s Human Rights Commission, saying school officials violated her freedom of religion when they said she could not wear her head covering, which conceals everything but the eyes.

It’s unfortunate the situation had to escalate to this point. The student’s expulsion was unnecessary and the message it sends contradicts Canadian values. Our philosophy is to welcome others without handing them ultimatums. The college essentially decreed certain cultural practices to be absolutely incompatible with Canadian teaching practices and demanded the student to sacrifice one for the other.

This is not to say students should be able to avoid meeting grading requirements on cultural or religious grounds. Language instructors should deduct marks when students aren’t speaking audibly, regardless of religious garb. But newcomers who wish to wear the niqab will do so in all areas of life, so learning to communicate while wearing the covering will need to be something they have to learn.

Only a handful of Muslim women who live in Quebec wear a niqab, but this is a choice more Quebec girls might embrace in the future. Sending the message that minorities cannot be entirely accepted in the province will encourage minority groups to isolate themselves. Statistics Canada reported that by the year 2031, at least one in four Canadians will have been born elsewhere. With this prediction in mind, Canada’s classrooms should be allowing people from all cultures to speak — even from behind a veil.