Tom Mulcair: Church, state and pandering to prejudices

Article content material

Premier François Legault has as soon as once more proven his true stripes on the problem of church and state. He retweeted the unproven affirmation of a firebrand separatist pamphleteer, Mathieu Bock-Côté, that “Catholicism engendered in Quebec a tradition of solidarity that units us aside from the remainder of the continent.”

Legault apparently believes his personal faith is a notch above others (a minimum of all of the others on the continent.)

Article content material

This comes on the heels of the Coalition Avenir Québec authorities’s newest anti-Muslim choice.

As historians Esther Delisle and  Frank Guttman have documented, antisemitism was widespread within the Quebec of the Nineteen Thirties.

The horrors of the battle appear to have made Jew-baiting much less mainstream and by the Fifties there was a brand new official goal: Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Right this moment, it’s the Muslim group which is being singled out by a more recent Quebec authorities, taking part in on very previous themes.

Article content material

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been persecuted by the federal government of Maurice Duplessis. That resulted in a landmark Supreme Court docket ruling in opposition to the premier’s abuse of energy.

Legault has so much in frequent with Duplessis. Each discovered their core assist exterior of the bigger cities, in additional rural areas, the place worry of multicultural variations is widespread. Each helped preserve assist by pandering to prejudices. Montreal’s variety is seen as a menace.

Donald Trump didn’t invent something in the case of stoking resentment in opposition to minorities for political acquire.

The nostalgic reference to the glories of church-dominated Quebec is on a par with “Make America Nice Once more.” Related nostrums are pushed  by the acute proper in France, the place Bock-Côté additionally plies his commerce.

Article content material

Article content material

There’s a revealing passage on the finish of a social media put up Legault made after he introduced Invoice 21. Making an attempt to justify the banning of spiritual symbols for academics and different classes of public sector staff, he gravely intoned that it was vital as a result of “in Quebec that is how we stay.” The “we” after all excluded folks totally different from him. They’d have to vary!

Invoice 21 discriminates in opposition to non secular minorities on the whole and Muslims particularly. That shameful legislation truly has a chapter that basically applies solely to Muslim ladies.

Nowhere else in North America will you discover a jurisdiction that has made it unlawful to rent a prosecutor who wears a kippah. All over the place else in Canada, police forces permit Sikhs to put on a uniform turban. And, after all, there’s no justifiable cause to make it unlawful to work as a trainer in case you put on a hijab (head scarf) however, in Quebec, the federal government appears to imagine it may indoctrinate college students.

Article content material

Throughout an official go to to California, Legault tried to talk up Governor Gavin Newsom about Invoice 21. A visibly uncomfortable Newsom informed Legault to zip it. Legault’s bumpkin routine is of continental calibre.

It was predictable that the CAQ would refuse to be outdone by the Parti Québécois within the intolerance sweepstakes. When a PQ MNA had his large “aha!” second upon discovering the prayer rooms at a few Laval excessive colleges, the race was on. The creator of the notorious Constitution of Values, Bernard Drainville, now the training minister, tripped throughout his personal rhetoric making an attempt to catch up.

College officers had seen pious Muslim college students praying in stairwells and parking tons. As an inexpensive lodging they got entry to an empty classroom. However for others, in some way, praying college students represent a menace to society.

Article content material

The predictable “unanimous vote” of the Nationwide Meeting ensued with Québec solidaire shamefully becoming a member of the ranks of the anti-minority avengers. Gabriel Nadeau Dubois talks a great sport however when issues get robust, he received’t stand in opposition to “l’unanimité.”

The largest embarrassment, although, was the complete Liberal caucus. Not a single “Liberal” MNA stood as much as break the unanimity. What cowardice and abject lack of values. They need to be required to vary their get together’s title; referencing liberty is fake promoting.

Tom Mulcair, a former chief of the federal NDP, served as minister of the setting within the Quebec Liberal authorities of Jean Charest.