No evidence mosques asked for exclusion of women: Quebec construction president

Diane Lemieux said Thursday that investigators studied signed contracts and met with representatives of both mosques, all the companies involved as well as women who worked on the site. (Photo By Alexandralev – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MONTREAL — The president of Quebec’s construction commission says there is absolutely no evidence that members of two Montreal mosques asked for female construction workers to be excluded from a nearby site.

Diane Lemieux said Thursday that investigators studied signed contracts and met with representatives of both mosques, all the companies involved as well as women who worked on the site.

Their conclusion was that mosque officials had not made any request or demand concerning women.

The brouhaha erupted Tuesday when TVA reported the mosques had requested the no-women policy for the construction site during the busy Friday prayer sessions.

The TV network also said women on the site were intimidated.

A day later, mosque officials dismissed the report and said they had only asked for parking to be available on Fridays.

Lemieux did say it appears some women were moved around the site at certain times as part of normal procedures but that these measures were possibly linked to a surplus of personnel or to operational needs.