QUEBEC GOVERNMENT DOES THE SILLY WALK WITH NEW RACIST “VALUES CHARTER: QUEBEC’S CONTROVERSIAL SECULARISM CHARTER APPROACHES ‘MONTY PYTHON-ESQUE ABSURDITY,’ JASON KENNEY SAYS By Michael Woods, Postmedia News, National Post Newspaper, Toronto Canada, September 15 2013 news.nationalpost/2013/09/15/quebecs-controversial-secularism-charter-approaches-monty-python-esque-absurdity-jason-kenney-says/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NP_Top_Stories+%28National+Post+-+Top+Stories%29 I wasn’t very proud to be a Québécois this week. The masquerade that was the unveiling of the Charter of Québécois Values deeply embarrassed me, and worried me, because this debate revealed the darker side of the Québécois soul and the less noble aspects of Quebec nationalism. I understand the concerns of citizens who support the charter. They want some clarity around the kinds of accommodations we are prepared to make, so they don’t go too far; and they fear that certain fundamental principles — especially equality between men and women — are threatened. But there are other, less noble reasons that some are applauding the Marois government’s project. There are, in Quebec as there are elsewhere, currents of opposition to immigration that are sometimes expressions of fear, of ethnocentrism, of involuntary xenophobia, but also sometimes of racism pure and simple. “I think people have a hard time understanding how a Jewish doctor wearing a kippa or a hospital worker wearing a turban gets in the way of their work, their responsibilities or dealing with the public,” Kenney told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday. “It just doesn’t make sense.” The proposal, unveiled last week, would require Quebecers giving or receiving public services to not wear face coverings, and would also forbid public servants from wearing “ostentatious” religious symbols in the workplace. The three major federal political parties have denounced the proposed legislation. Kenney said last week that the federal government would legally challenge the legislation if the Justice Department deems it to be unconstitutional. Experts and numerous federal politicians have dismissed the charter as a cynical election ploy by Quebec’s government to pit the province against the rest of Canada. Polling has shown that a majority of Quebecers support the legislation. But Kenney suggested he doesn’t think that will be the case when Quebecers take a closer look at the proposal. “I think that when Quebecers begin to actually contemplate the idea that provincial bureaucrats might be getting out a tape measurer to measure the size of people’s crosses, to see whether or not their earring is too obviously religious, I mean this gets to a point of almost Monty Python-esque absurdity,” Kenney said. “I don’t think the majority of Quebecers will support that kind of overbearing application of the power of the state.” Kenney noted that many Quebecers, “even very serious Quebec nationalist commentators,” have criticized the proposal, and that it’s “inconsistent with Quebec’s best values.” “This should not be seen as a Canada versus Quebec issue,” Kenney said. “I know that the separatist government would like to frame it that way. “Let’s not forget that just a few decades ago, most of the hospital and schools in Quebec were largely being run by people — nuns — wearing head scarves and crosses,” he said. “That’s the tradition of Quebec itself, and it’s something that should be respected.” The Bloc Quebecois ejected one of its few caucus members in the House of Commons last week, Montreal MP Maria Mourani, because she voiced opposition to the proposed Charter of Values, which must still pass the Quebec legislature. In an interview with CTV’s Question Period, NDP leader Tom Mulcair vowed that the Opposition would work to fight the proposal, calling it “patently unconstitutional” . “For us, [he continued] it’s untenable and it’s unbearable to think that a woman who’s working as an educator in a daycare centre would lose her job because she’s wearing a head scarf.” Although he called Bloc leader Daniel Paille’s decision to eject Mourani from caucus “pathetic,” he seemed to rule out the prospect of inviting her to join the NDP…
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:49:13 +0000
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