Quebec Intolerant of Accomodations, but not Religion

Call it a paradox, but it's my contention that Quebeckers reject making religious accommodations to a larger extent than Canadians in other provinces while maintaining a higher level of religious tolerance.

Now before you rush to the comments section to point out that my two previous posts are incompatible with this statement, hear me out.

A couple of days ago, a group of Sikhs was refused entry into Quebec's Parliament because they refused to give up their ceremonial daggers known as Kirpans.

"Hearings into the accommodation of minority groups were disrupted Tuesday when security agents refused to accommodate four Sikh officials who refused to turn in their ceremonial daggers" Toronto Sun.

 "Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to enter because we wear the kirpan, which is a bit ironic because we were here to speak upon the issue of accommodation and we weren't accommodated," said Singh. CBC

By the way, this is the law that would ban the niqib (veil) in some public situations.

The spokesman for the group pointed out to reporters that the kirpan is an 'article of faith' and not a weapon, but take a look at the knife, it looks pretty dangerous to me.
I guess one man's 'article of faith,' is another man's weapon.

 

If the Sikhs had brought along a bowling ball as their 'article of faith,' I'd expect the Parliamentary guards to let them in. As for a knife, I don't think so.

"Kripan?"

The Supreme Court of Canada and the federal Parliament allow Sikhs to carry the kirpan within their buildings and this will undoubtedly fuel media focus branding Quebec as intolerant.

While most Canadians overwhelmingly agree with Quebec in matters of religious accommodation, the federal government and the other provincial governments disagree and the liberal media is quick to condemn Quebeckers as intolerant based on this difference of opinion.

Quebeckers are much more sensitive to religious extremism, having been the victim of a domineering church up until the last generation. There remains a great deal of resentment at having ones life controlled by others and seeing a woman wearing a veil is as provocative to Quebec women as a matador's cape thrust before a bull's face.

Where one persons freedom ends and the public begins shall always remain a contentious issue.

Those who say that all religious ceremonies and conventions should be tolerated and accommodated are spouting poppycock.
We don't allow human or animal sacrifice, flagellation, exploitation of children or polygamy (even though this last one may change.)

As a society, we set limits. Where those limits are, remains a fair question.

And so debate over religious accommodation is legitimate.

• Should Muslims be provided prayer rooms in universities?
• Should Hassidic children be excused from studying the standard provincial curriculum
• Should women be allowed to demand to be treated by a female physician or be served by a female public employee?
• Should days off for alternative holidays be provided?
• Should public and private institutions provide for segregated male/female classes.
• Should dangerous religious symbols such as kirpans be carried on airplanes or public buildings?

As you probably know this last weekend saw a bunch of Jewish buildings vandalized in Montreal and the cry went up once again that Quebec is intolerant. If and when the perpetrator is found, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts, that he won't be a Francophone.

When it comes to 'hate crimes,' Quebec has the lowest incidence in Canada.

That's right, I bet you didn't know that.

In fact Vancouver, that paragon of tolerance has the highest incidence of hate crimes in Canada (6.3 per 100,000 population)

In 2008 there were 271 hate crimes in Toronto compared to just 38 in Montreal! Link

Of course we are reminded that the boycott of the Le Marcheur shoe store is another act of aggression towards Jews, but when it comes to the campaign of Boycott and Divestment of Israel, Francophone universities have largely steered clear of celebrating "Apartheid week." The intolerance and aggression shown to Jewish students in Anglophone universities like Concordia and other across Canada, towers over anything on the French side.
That's also just the plain truth.

Anyone who calls Quebeckers religiously intolerant by nature, is dead wrong. Statistics don't back up that theory.

Where things go awry is on the language question. There, too many Quebeckers become irrational and intolerant of others.
Again, that's just the plain truth.

As I've always said...... in Quebec it's always about language...but lay off the religious intolerance.

When Racism Goes Mainstream

To varying degrees the scourge racism exists across the country and no one province or territory can claim that they are immune from hate.
That being said, Canadians realize that racism is not politically correct and dare not express these sentiments in print, on television and over the radio waves, unless they are eager to suffer the  fate of the late aboriginal leader David Ahenakew, whose life was destroyed after he made some racist public remarks about Jews, a few years back. Charged with promoting hate he was put through a long and debilitating judicial ringer which no doubt contributed to his death.

In Canada, making negative statements in public about identifiable groups is pretty much verbotten. Amazingly, making positive statements about identifiable groups is also pretty much frowned upon, that's how sensitive to race we've become.
Making statements like 'Blacks are better athletes than whites" makes people uncomfortable because of the slippery slope it infers. If you can make good generalizations about a group, then you can make bad ones too, so we generally frown on these comments.

Somehow all these rules don't seem to apply to Quebec where negative stereotyping is a national provincial pastime. Publicly discussing the foibles of particular groups, be they religious, ethnic or language based, is somehow not seen as racist at all.

There is a great divide when it comes to attitudes over race in Quebec and the Rest of Canada.

Over the last couple of months I've posted a bunch of stuff on the subject and if you haven't seen it, I think you'll find the stories interesting.

Too Many Greeks and Italians in Laval

Gilles Proulx's racist TV 

Hidden face e of Quebec Racism

Revisiting Hérouxville 

Latent Racism in Quebec a Sad Reality

Here's a video of Radio-Canada bashing immigrants who can't speak enough French. The video is, as is freely admitted by the commentator, unscientific and unrepresentative of the immigrant community but it makes for good TV.
 These type of stereo-typical portrayals are de riguer on Quebec TV, even on networks funded by taxpayers.
And you thought the role of the CBC/Radio Canada was to foster understanding among Canadians!

 

Today, an egregious story of overt racism continues to play out in the mainstream press, not in the obscure pages of vigil.net or some other extremist web site.

That story is the panicked perception in the French media, that immigrants, aligned with the dreaded English community are taking over the island of Montreal.

Talk of 're-conquering' Montreal by francophones is a subject that is splashed across mainstream media with the underlying theme that ethnics and Anglos are an evil presence to be rid of, like vermin.

"We must work to develop policies to keep Montreal francophones from leaving the island and create conditions for more Francophones to return." Pierre Curzi - PQ

That francophone writers bemoan the fact that the island of Montreal is lost to the 'heathens' doesn't seem to strike anyone here as the least bit racist.  Not at all.

When commentators tell us that there are not enough native francophones on the island of Montreal, what they are trying to say politely is that there are too many Anglos, Blacks, Jews, Greeks, Italians, Chinese, Indians, Latinos, Hispanics, Africans and Arabs. etc.

The same story is now being repeated in Laval.  Le Mouvement Laval français was created to stop the spread of 'insipid multiculturalism.' Link 

Could you imagine a Toronto newspaper calling openly for more Whites to move into predominantly Black neighbourhoods in order to restore the demographic superiority of Whites?

Could you imagine an Ottawa newspaper calling openly for more Anglos to move into predominantly French neighbourhoods in order to restore the demographic superiority of the English?

In Quebec, under the guise of protecting French language and culture, the most racist and hurtful notions can be bandied about and this in the mainstream press.

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.

Quebec Ethnics Destroy the Separatist Dream

The battle for Quebec sovereignty kicked off in earnest with the election of Quebec's first separatist government in 1976.
The newly elected Part Quebecois government, while giddy with its success at the polls was no less realistic that its dream of sovereignty was a goal that under the then, present circumstances, notwithstanding the election victory, was far from realizable.

Elected on the platform of good government first, and perhaps sovereignty later, the Parti Quebecois swept to an overwhelming victory in terms of parliamentary seats, but still only garnered 41% of the popular vote.
Getting the population to move from that percentage, to the 50% plus one support needed in an eventual referendum, was a problem that the new government was determined to tackle head on.

The first order of business was to transform the mindset of Quebeckers from comfortable Canadians, to that of paranoid Quebeckers, which was to be accomplished by heightening and focusing on the differences between the French and English elements of society through manufactured conflict, reminding us of the proverb that tells us that  "In danger, there is opportunity"

Read a brief history of the language debate

The demonization of the English, already a popular theme among the militants, would be brought to the mainstream, so that an US versus THEM mentality could be created and exploited in order to sell the political agenda of separation, through the artificial fear that the English were out to destroy Francophone culture and the French language.

And so it was decided to come down hard on Quebec's English population, the demonization would be subtle, yet substantial.
Quebec Francophones would be introduced to the big lie that living among the English was a toxic formula for assimilation, notwithstanding the fact that French has thrived under just such conditions for the 250 year period of the so-called 'colonial occupation'

A year after the election of the PQ, chief language hardliner Dr. Camille Laurin, drafted Bill 101, Quebec's infamous language law, an instrument of division, meant not only to promote French over English, but to establish English speakers as second class citizens.

When René Levesque first saw a draft of Bill 101, he almost choked, pointing out to the good doctor that many of its provisions were clearly anti-constitutional and could never withstand any sort of court challenge. The wholesale stripping of language rights seemed to the newly elected Premier overly harsh and cruel, something that he admitted, deeply humiliated him. But the cabinet backed the hard line and Bill 110 became law.
Dr. Laurin happily admitted that his law was unconstitutional and that portions would surely be struck down in the Supreme Court, especially those parts making French the only official language of the courts and Parliament, something expressly forbidden in the BNA act.
To Doctor Laurin the inevitable reversals in court could be manipulated to amplify the theme of French humiliation and victimization that would bolster the cause of sovereignty by proving to the ordinary man in the street that Ottawa was determined to undermine the legitimate defence of the French language.

The effect of Bill 101 was electrifying.
Not only did it reset the historical direction of language relations in the province, it served to terrify many Anglophones into leaving the province in a historic Exodus, a migration of epic proportion, not seen in this country since the displacement of the United Empire Loyalists after the American War of Independence.

The law also had the effect of chasing the head offices of much of the big business establishment out of Montreal, where they once represented over 70% of all corporate power in Canada, to Toronto and parts west. The departure of the mighty SUN LIFE insurance company set off the stampede that represented the final nail in the coffin of Montreal as Canada's leading city.

Driving the highly mobile Anglos out of the province was a dream come true for the separatists who were rubbing their hands in glee as this secondary gift of Bill 101 proved even more satisfactory than could have been imagined.
The loss of the business establishment and sizable portion of the English community was deemed to be what today we call 'acceptable collateral damage,' a dose of painful medicine, necessary if Quebec was to find its own path to sovereignty.

In spite of these 'successes' the first referendum loss in 1980 was not unexpected, but not particularly disheartening to separatist forces in general and the Parti Quebecois in particular. The numbers were such that the separatists could reasonably look forward to another kick at the can at a later date, once the full force of the English retreat was realized, coupled with the gradual upward acceptance of sovereignty by the francophone majority as a result of the various Parti Quebecois programs and the effect of Bill 101.

The separatists were not troubled by the fact that the minorities had voted massively against sovereignty in that first referendum.
It was understood that since these 'outsiders' had already been assimilated in the greater English community, due largely to the fact that they were educated in the English education system, it was natural that they would align themselves on the NO side.
Up until that time, Muslims, Jews, Greeks and other non-Catholics had been denied entry into Quebec's French schools which was then run by the Catholic Church. These minorities were forced into the province's Protestant system, which was run in exclusively in English.  Even the Italians, themselves Catholic, attended their own separate English schools. The desire of the Catholic church to isolate French Quebeckers from the influence of the immigrant 'heathens' would have an incalculable impact on the future of the sovereignty question.

However,  the separatists were confident that this would change once all the immigrant students were forced into French schools as per Bill 101, which was thought to be, the ultimate assimilator.

They believed that while the first generation of immigrants would remain aligned with the English, the second and certainly the third generation, educated in French, would assimilate into the French community.

The referendum results of 1995 proved this theory as flawed as the Maginot Line.

'Allophones' as they became to be known, even those educated in French, voted massively in favour of Canada.
For separatists, losing the referendum by the slimmest of margins was difficult enough to digest, but the realization that Allophones had made the difference, felt like a knife through a heart. While they always expected the remaining English community to vote NO, the rejection of the sovereignty option by the allophones in such a massive proportion,  fuelled a bitter sense of betrayal.


It boiled over in Jacque Parizeau's raging post-referendum concession speech, where he specifically pointed the finger at the allophones as the cause of the defeat.

The grand demographic plan of getting rid of a significant proportion of Anglos and replacing them with assimilated immigrants has blown up miserably.

The separatists had inadvertently opened a Pandora's box, and the sheer numbers of immigrants that continue to come to Quebec makes sovereignty a virtual impossibility, as long as second, third and forth generation immigrants continue the voting pattern of their parents.

All this is not lost on hardliners.... and they are not pleased. In fact they are enraged. Watching sovereignty go up in smoke is a dish hard to digest.

And so the backlash has begun. Although Parizeau was the first to unload on the ethnics, it was left to pompous and insufferable Yves Michaud, another PQ hardliner to enunciate the new mantra of nationalists, that the Ethnics betrayed the 'real Quebeckers" by voting massively for Canada.

Read my post

His subsequent censure for racism in Quebec's Parliament is the story that rages on today as militants defend his honour and hold him up as a martyr to the cause.

This rage has morphed into an unprecedented racist attack on all Quebec minorities. Born in the pages of nationalist websites, this campaign of hate has crossed over into mainstream media.

Allophones have now become "Les Ethnies," a term that is nothing more than a pejorative for these 'outsiders' who have replaced the English as the enemy of nationalist Quebeckers.

For those who think I'm exaggerating, read my next few posts for a shocking exposé of the open demonization of Quebec's ethnic communities and their portrayal as a threat to the cultural and linguistic 'purity' of the Quebecois 'pure laine'.
It isn't pretty.

Tomorrow- The extremist websites racist attacks on Ethnics.

Housekeeping 101

Here's just a couple of notes to make your blogging experience, as well as the experience of other readers of No Dogs or Anglophones more worthwhile.

Even if you don't comment very often, please use an alias, when you do. It takes just a moment to personalize your comment with an 'alias' or 'handle'.
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Here's how;

It's that easy!
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Many of these words and phrases are not that familiar, even to the most bilingual.

Here's an example; "lurker^1" 

 In the above case, the link will take you to a definition of the word 'lurker' on the Urban Dictionary website. I've added a superscript to denote which dictionary definition is being referred to, in this case, the first one.;

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