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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Separatists pander to worst instincts
It was only a matter of time before the Quebec provincial election descended into the baiting of the pur laine vote, the wedge that last time around cut Jean Charest's Liberals to minority government and undercut Parti Québécois support. Now the PQ is promising to do what Mr. Charest failed to do in power -- force civil servants and "para-governmental" workers to remove their religious symbols.
This has set off a fiery exchange, only some of which is coherent, on the campaign trail. Individual candidates have dissented with party positions and the mayor of Saguenay goaded politicians with bigoted remarks about immigrants that play well in some circles.
Quebec has worried this bone -- "reasonable accommodation" of other cultures -- for years. A commission eventually recommended that high-profile public servants (police, judges and the like) should not wear clothes or jewelry that denote religion.
The Action Democratique used the issue to siphon votes from the PQ and the Liberals in the last election. Subsequently, Mr. Charest's minority government proposed a bill to restrict the wearing of religious symbols. It failed, allowing Pauline Marois, leader of the PQ, who most fears the third-party upstart, the Coalition Avenir Quebec, to play the tune.
Ms. Marois proposes a Quebec secular charter that would undermine the individual liberties of public servants, teachers and doctors -- no yarmulkes, no hijabs, no turbans.
In a province that can't deliver enough health care, she would force a Sikh doctor to choose between his religion and his job.
The crucifix in the National Assembly would remain, explained away as a symbol not of religion, but of the province's cultural history. And a small cross pendant could continue to be worn.
Ms. Marois' additional proposal for Quebec citizenship is deeply offensive. Ramping up the restrictions on the right to use English and dictating who could run for public office, it would create two classes of residents -- those who are French and those who aren't -- and dig a deeper chasm between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
Mr. Charest faces a much broader challenge this election, one backed by allegations his government is implicated in a widening corruption scandal. But now the mudslinging over minorities and immigrants and cultural superiority looks worse on the province.
Canadians should hope that enough Quebecers will want to put some distance between them and the taint of prejudice to nip Ms. Marois' transparent and odious gambit in the bud. That allows them to hold their noses and opt for a government that, while imperfect, will work with, not against a good piece of the population.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 20, 2012 A10
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