Quebec Premier Jean Charest has launched a government commission to examine the social accommodation of religious and cultural minorities.

Two university professors, Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, will oversee the commission's one-year mandate.

Charest said he had little choice but to call for a formal investigation into the matter because the public debate had got out of hand.

"Here we have a debate that has taken a bad turn, where people weren't talking about reasonable accommodation. They were talking about other things, and presenting it as something that they call reasonable accommodation," he said Thursday.

The issue boiled over when a municipal council in the Mauricie town of Hérouxville adopted a code of conduct for immigrants in January. Seven of the region's 10 towns moved quickly to support the list of rules. The Muslim Congress of Canada is considering a human rights complaint against the town.

In Montreal, the debate over reasonable accommodation for minorities has simmered around paid days off granted to Muslim and Jewish school board employees, who observe religious holidays.