Ethnics - When Bashing Turns to Hate

As we learned of the weekend vandalization of five Montreal Jewish synagogues and one Jewish school, it's perhaps appropriate to discuss the rising tide of intolerance sweeping Quebec.

If history repeats itself, the attacker or attackers will ultimately be angry young Muslims and not francophones, who have rarely ever engaged in that type of overt antisemitism. That is because those who have a deep and profound problem with Blacks, Jews, Muslims and other minorities generally don't see themselves as racists at all.

The 'intellectual' bashing of "les Ethnies" is perhaps the most insidious form of racism, when it manifests itself in some sort of presumed 'legitimate' debate.

 When Jacques Parizeau made his injudicious remarks about minorities in his post-referendum speech in 1995, wherein he blamed the ethnics for the referendum loss, he paid the ultimate political price. The faux pas was likely fuelled by a well-lubricated and utterly frustrated politician vocalizing his inner most thoughts, when obviously it was in his interest to shut up.
Clearly he regretted his words and before being told to resign by others, he did the honourable thing the very next day.
But the genie was out of the bottle, Mr. Parizeau had said what so many separatists held, that ethnics were bad citizens because they did not closely pattern themselves after the Quebecois 'ideal.'

And so the notion that immigrants had an obligation to become like their francophone 'hosts,' became popularized.
This theory holds that immigrants should love hockey, eat poutine and bacon, listen to Quebecois music and watch French television. Most importantly, they should dress in western attire and avoid any religious articles of clothing. Regardless of their religion they should be largely non-practising and should avoid marriage in favour of common-law unions. They should abandon their native language, even in the confines of their homes and most importantly they should vote as Quebecois vote, some for federalism and some for sovereignty.
Of all the 'sins' committed by immigrants, the most unpardonable is remaining attached to their own cultural community and fostering a sense of belonging to a collectivity other than the Quebecois nation.

This fanciful dream is championed by Yves Michaud who popularized the theory that ethnics were bad citizens because they voted en masse against independence. Link
When he was reproached by a motion of censure in the National Assembly, for deeming the Jewish community contemptuous of  'real' Quebeckers, he became an instant celebrity and launched the ongoing crusade against the ethnics..

Quebec's separatist website vigile.net is perhaps the most successful purveyor of hate, using the cloak of honest debate and reporting to slip in the most shameful attacks on the recently arrived immigrants  as well as the more established minorities.

Bernard Frappier, editor of the vigile.net website has established a slick formula whereby he reprints news articles from mainstream media outlets that generally, (but not exclusively) supports a sovereignist, anti-Canadian/America/Israeli agenda.

'Jewish' rats abandoning Obama ship

There's nothing wrong with that, except when he salts among these legitimate articles, racist rants from from the fringe elements and assorted hate websites.
Perhaps  the best example is the thoroughly antisemitic article Mr. Frappier republished. Read a post about it

But the fun really begins in the section entitled "Tribune Libre " where crackpots readers can contribute a very special brand of hate. Here, pseudo-intellectual flights of fancy attack immigrants, established minorities, Canadians, Americans and of course the perennial favourite, Jews and Israelis.

It is on these pages that these pompous racists espouse a very special kind of hate tinged with paranoia and fantasy.

Let me share some of the more 'interesting' opinions.

Rejean Labrie is one of the most prolific hate-mongers contributors and has produced such pearls as; "Who should be allowed to vote in a referendum" You guessed it, certainly not immigrants!

In another article, "the next mayor of Montreal to be a multi-ethnic" he mockingly frets that the next mayor of Montreal will be a Haitian who has converted to Islam.  Even if you don't read French, click on the link to see the photos he's included with the article. I don't think we'll need to launch an investigation to discover that most of the pictures were shot outside Quebec.

He reminds us in another article that inter-marriage between Anglos and Francophones should be discouraged and tells us in another missive that it isn't too late to reconquer Montreal and take it back from the ethnics who are turning the city into a 'bidonville' (shanty town)

Of course nothing will top off his antisemitic denunciation of rich Quebec Jews from Montreal and Laval who control all the banks as well as the government through the insidious and pervasive Jewish lobby. While I won't bother to respond to a conspiracy theory, I would like to know if he can actually name one rich Jew from Laval, I can't!


Jacques Noël complains that there are too many ethnics in Quebec's parliament. His deconstruction of 'ethnic' names would make an attendee at the Wansee Conference proud. His methodology leaves a bit to be desired as he counts Russell Copeman twice, as both an Anglo and then separately as a Jew, thus boosting the 'ethnic' numbers. Come to think of it, at the time he wrote the article, Copeman wasn't even a member of the Assembly, having resigned two years earlier. Sheesh!
Admitting that anglophones are under-represented,  Mr. Noël tells us that having an anglophone Premier, makes up for the shortfall. Yup, according to him, Jean Charest is an Anglophone!
Of course, to him, it makes sense that there are too many minorities depicted in Quebec television shows and commercials. Mr. Noël labels this over-representation  as a case of 'pernicious multiculturalism.'

The list of these types of articles is endless.

Separatist after separatist discuss the scourge of the ethnics as if they were nothing more than dogs.

Cleaning up Montreal and restoring the city to its historical ethnic purity is an open obsession of the sovereignty movement. It is racism pure and simple.

There are apologists who say that people in the Rest of Canada are as racist and as intolerant, but try as I did, I couldn't dig up any article calling for the ethnic cleansing of the Chinese in Vancouver and the reconquering of Toronto's black neighbourhoods.

The closest I came to finding a racist story was a mildly offensive Maclean's magazine article that discussed the effect of so many Asians attending Toronto universities. The controversial article quoted some white students saying that they wouldn't go to the University of Toronto because of its high Asian enrollment.
That story did not go unnoticed and did not go unpunished.
Over 2000 comments denounced the article as racist and a Toronto city councillor demanded that;

".....his fellow councillors to distance themselves from the views expressed in the article and ask the magazine to say it is sorry for the “negative stereotyping of the Asian-Canadian community.” LINK

I promise you that the article in question was not one-tenth as racist as any of the ones I have linked to above.

Articles on vigile.net don't get wide distribution, but they cannot be ignored, just the same.

Unfortunately, the anti-ethnic racism is spilling out to the mainstream and that is where it becomes dangerous.

Tomorrow; Racism in the mainstream media.