The Bigots Are Coming Out of the Woodwork: "Charter of Values" Proposal Results in Racist Attacks

Updated September 18, 2013  1:55 PM

The first of what are expected to be many racist incidents have occurred in Chicoutimi and a suburb of Quebec City in the wake of last week's announcement by the Parti Quebecois of their intention to introduce a "Quebec Charter of Values".  The proposed charter would restrict the wearing of religious clothing or religious symbols by those working in publicly funded institutions.  The PQ says the proposed charter is to ensure that the government is remains completely secular in its delivery of services.  However, critics say that this initiative has nothing to do with secularism, is clearly directed at visible minority communities, and would be a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

These two incidents, which could be classified as hate crimes, are exactly what minority religious communities in Quebec feared and were predicted by their leaders when word of the values charter was first leaked.  There was an expectation that the introduction of the charter, the debate surrounding it, and support for the proposal by the PQ government, would embolden those who hold racist tendencies to act on them.

In the Chicoutimi incident on September 1st a mosque was vandalized and splattered with pig’s blood.  According to Saguenay police a letter was also left at the mosque, denouncing Islam and telling Muslims to "assimilate or go home. 

Related:

* Chicoutimi, Que., mosque vandalized
* Witness sought in Saguenay mosque vandalism

In the second incident which took place in early September in a shopping mall in the Quebec City suburb of Ste. Foy the Senouci family, a family of Algerian background, was accosted by a Francophone woman who demanded that Badia Senouci remove her headscarf (or hijab) and demanded that she change her religion.

"She told me, 'Madame, change your religion," Senouci said, according to CBC News. 

Senouci responded by saying that in Canada she had the freedom to practice her religion (as guaranteed by the Canadian Constitution).  The Francophone woman replied that soon the government would force her to remove her hijab.  The confrontation turned into an apparent assault when the Francophone woman spit in the face of Senouci's son as he stepped between the two women.  Her husband, Abdelmalek Mansouri has filed a complaint with the police and is waiting to see whether charges can be filed against the woman.
* * 

Related:
* Charter of values stirring up tensions in Quebec
* Woman says she was accosted in mall over her Islamic veil
* Debunking the PQ’s Charter of Myths 

These incidents prove a number of things.

The first is that those who predicted that incidents like these would occur if the PQ moved forward with its values charter proposal were correct.

The second is that those Quebecers with bigoted attitudes now feel justified in their bigotry and will more likely act on their prejudice using the values charter proposal to justify their actions.  As proof of the fact that bigots are coming out of the woodwork on this issue just look at the racist comments posted online in response to various news stories about the charter.  Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg and it is more than likely that postings of similar online comments will continue (and probably increase), and incidents like those described above will occur again as the debate on the PQ proposal continues.

Third, far from uniting Quebecers as Premier Pauline Marois laughably claims the debate on the values charter will deeply divide Quebec society and the scars from this will take a long time to heal.  Recent polls on public response to the PQ proposal show that Quebecers are splitting predominantly along English / French and urban / rural lines, and the debate is only in its early days.  As an example of how long it could take for Quebec to move beyond the divisions created by this debate and for wounds to heal, witness how long it has taken to get over the divisions that were created as a result of the last sovereignty referendum in 1995.

And lastly, even if the values charter doesn't get adopted the debate will send a message to Quebec's immigrant community that Quebec is not a welcoming province if you happen to be a visible or religious minority and will result in an exodus of people from that province to the detriment of the Quebec economy.  Furthermore, it would tell prospective immigrants (particularly visible and religious minorities) that settling in Quebec is a risky proposition.  This would cripple the Quebec government's immigration strategy which tries to target immigrants who originate from French speaking countries which tend to be predominantly Muslim.

It has become obvious in the short time since the values charter proposal was first leaked and then made public that Pauline Marois and the Parti Quebecois are willing to sink to new depths of negativity and opportunism to resurrect their political brand and win a majority government.  The people that the PQ are catering to with their charter proposal live predominantly in the Quebec hinterland, which is primarily Francophone, and clearly anti-immigrant, if the polls are to be believed.  Those who are opposed to the proposal live primarily in the Montreal region and Quebec's urbanized areas -- the places where most immigrants settle, which generate most of Quebec's economic output, and the places which would be most impacted if the proposal became law.  It seems that in an effort to achieve a majority government Marois and the PQ are willing to sacrifice social harmony and possible economic stability.

Common sense would dictate that to maintain Quebec's social harmony and for the sake of the province's economy it would be better for Marois to bury the charter of values proposal and try another strategy.  But it seems that she and the PQ have thrown common sense out the window and adopted an approach that would be perfectly acceptable in certain European countries where nationalist, xenophobic parties have achieved political success.  If this is the sort of political opportunism and social divisiveness that the PQ is willing to adopt then we have entered a new era of politics in this country -- one where Canada's successful yet imperfect  experiment in tolerance and acceptance is abandoned by politicians for the sake of political expediency, one where the rights of minorities can be sacrificed and the support of bigots is courted in order to get elected, one where the end justifies the means. 

This is not the country that most Canadians have seen evolve into an international role model of diversity and social harmony, the country that people from around the world have chosen to call home, the country that my parents chose to settle in, a country where there is no place for the perversity of the sort of politics being practiced in Quebec by Pauline Marois and the PQ. 

© The View From Here.  All Rights Reserved.