Is Canada becoming a country of bigots?
The Globe and Mail has this op-ed as well.Claude Bazinet, a tall man with a wild wisp of white hair, stood on nervous legs and, to a packed room with television cameras rolling, spewed forth his feelings on the immigrants coming to his native Quebec. He spoke of Quebec's tiny Hasidic Jewish population who have "built houses on our land" and surrounded them with fences; he castigated those new arrivals who, because of their skin colour, were favoured by his former employer; he suggested the Muslim faith was endangering Christmas.
"We receive them here, we feed them, we house them, we give them an education, and they don't integrate at all," Bazinet said into the microphone. "What do they do to accommodate? Nothing." As he sat down, many in the audience winced. But many others clapped. Bazinet, a former Bell Canada employee who grew up in Montreal, is one of roughly 340 people who have spoken their mind so far at Quebec's hearings on "reasonable accommodations," a travelling commission chaired by two academics attempting to gauge the province's feelings on immigrants and Quebec society. Premier Jean Charest called it into action last February during an election campaign dominated by issues of immigration and Quebec identity, and in the wake of an embarrassing controversy over the town of Hérouxville's infamous bylaws, the early versions of which outlawed stoning and female circumcision. The commission has been dismissed, sometimes by those testifying before it, as a puff of political expediency. But it has proven to be more revealing, even disturbing than that.
The Parti Québécois is proposing to create two classes of Canadian citizens in Quebec: those who speak French up to a government-imposed standard, and those who do not. Those who do not meet the standard would be denied the right to run for political office, contribute to political parties or sign a petition to the province's National Assembly. Those who meet the standard would be so-called Quebec citizens, with full rights. (Anyone living in Quebec now or born in future to Quebec citizens would be counted as citizens.) The PQ's notion that Quebec has the power to disenfranchise Canadian citizens is ludicrous in a legal sense and repugnant in a moral one.
Consider a banker from Vancouver, either native-born or from abroad. She's a Canadian citizen. Her bank transfers her to Montreal. After three months (under the PQ's proposed "Quebec identity act"), she is eligible for Quebec citizenship. To obtain that citizenship, she needs to meet the provincial standard for speaking French and for knowledge of Quebec. If she's not up to standard, the PQ would bar her from contributing to, say, the Liberal Party of Canada if she so chose. If she wishes to express her objections to this law, she cannot sign a petition being put before the Quebec legislature. If she plans to stay, she cannot run for office, not even for a local school board.
One person, one vote is at the core of any democracy. The PQ would diminish the principle by chipping away the political rights that go with having a vote. The party claims to have constitutional advice that its proposal would be considered reasonable in a free and democratic society under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Nonsense. To carve up the core principle of a democracy would require proof of a devastating and imminent threat to that democracy's survival. And what is that threat?
What do you think? Are Canadians bigots? I know a lot of people who think like Claude Bazinet in Saskatchewan but there are some everywhere. I have blogged before about the "concern" people had when Mark was born, being that he was going to have a tougher time being from a "mixed" family.
I agree with the Globe that this is about sovereignty and while I don't know Quebec politics that well, a lot of Karl Rove lead GOP races over the years were won on wedge issues like this.
So what do you about it? Democracy isn't just majority rule, it is protecting minority rights as well and good people will have to stand up and challenge the words of people like Claude Bazinet.
3:28 AM ::
9 Comments:
I think that MLK Jr. spoke to this issue well. Canada is, perhaps, better at creating a system of equality which impacts people as they participate in that system (i.e. education, etc.). However, you cannot legislate the heart of man. And Canadians are as prone to bigotry as any other. Here is the quote:
"Morality cannot be legislated, but behaviour can be regulated... Desegregation will break down the legal barriers and bring men together physically, but something must touch the hearts and souls of men so that they will come together spiritually because it is natural and right. A vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws will bring an end to segregated public facilities, which are barriers to a truly desegregated society, but it cannot bring an end to fear, prejudice, pride, and irrationality, which are barriers to a truly integrated society.
"These dark and demonic responses will be removed only as men are possessed by by the invisible, inner law which etches on their hearts the conviction that all men are brothers and that love is mankind's most potent weapon for personal and social transformation. True integration will be achieved by true neighbours who are willingly obedient to unenforcable obligations."
('Strength To Love', Pocket Book, 1968)
There are thousands of people in Saskatchewan like Claude Bazinet and that isn't a bad thing. These people aren't bigots. They love their country. They come from a generation where people from other countries were assimilated into Canadian culture and if they didn't their children sure did. If you grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan there was probably a Chinese Cafe. In my town there were two and at one point a drugstore run by East Indians. Language was sometimes a barrier but they worked hard to be a part of the community and were treated with respect for doing so.
While Claude Bazinet is referring to parts of Quebec where the immigrant population is purposely separating themselves from the surrounding population, which isn't a problem here as yet, he has a valid pint and shouldn't be tossed aside by being labelled a bigot. If we are to have a dialogue in this country then people should feel free to speak.
My mother in law has lived in Canada for 45 years and can't speak English. That isn't right and I am not a bigot for saying so. She is a great lady but cannot carry on a simple conversation with her grandchildren or anyone else. She should have been required to learn English when she came here.
Who does it hurt if someone intentionally isolates themselves? Are the Hutterites who live here anti-Canadian?
Here's an interesting quote that jumped out at me on Wikipedia a moment ago:
"During World War I, the pacifist Hutterites also suffered persecution in the United States. In the most famous case, four Hutterite men subjected to military draft who refused to comply were imprisoned and tortured. Ultimately, two died at Leavenworth Military Prison from mistreatment, after the Armistice had been signed ending the war."
We're a free country, and unless someone can give me a darn good reason why we need to integrate someone for our nation to work, I say let people learn whatever languages they want, and associate with whatever (non violent) group they want to.
We're bigots. If we weren't, we'd have made sure that remote native communities have access to clean water, and we wouldn't build sewage treatment plants two miles upstream from their water intakes.
Wilsonian,
I have long said that I can't wait for a day when a government says that they are going to deal with this problem of native inequality once and for all. Yeah it will cost a lot of money and be really tough but it is a shame on all Canadians that this continues. Your examples should shame us all.
Jamie,
My problem is that the PQ is now making bigotted behaviour allowable.
The fence is a red herring. The fence was put up to protect the Hasidic kids from running onto the road. The placement of the fence was a violation of a municipal ordinance not a serious crime. As you mention Quebec's Hasidic community is tiny. As a general rule it is a law abiding group. Violent crimes are nil. Drug use is practically non existent. Unwed teenage pregnancies are nil. As many have language difficulties in official languages, their peculiar dress and religious requirements forces them to open businesses. At that point is when they get educated about the society at large.
When the Jewish community started to grow in the late 1800's and early 1900’s, they came from the shtetl, were Yiddish speaking and were less integrated in society that today's Hasidim. It took more than 50 years to completely integrate into the Canadian scene.
At the time there was quite a bit of resentment against these interlopers. Now they have been so assimilated that people like Barbara Kay of the National Post don't recognize that their own grandparents were Hasidim of Eastern Europe.
The Irish, Italians, Chinese etc. were not accepted either and over several generations have become integrated. I am very saddened and fearful that Quebec has become so xenophobic. I am a member of the Hasidic community of Montreal and I do not fit any of the stereotypes that are being bandied about.
One last thing, many prominent Jewish Canadians are descendants of pre-WWII Hasidim. Mordecai Richler's maternal & paternal grandfathers were Hasidim. His maternal grandfather was Chief Rabbi of Montreal. The Bronfman’s are descendants of Ekiel Bronfman a Hasidic Jew from Russia. Irwin Cotler is also a descendant of Hasidic family. I think that they have have become an important part of Canadian society.
Outremont Hasid, thanks for commenting and while I didn't know the history of the fence (and never thought it was that big of a deal), thanks for letting me know. I have always thought of Canada as Joe Clark said it, "A Community of Communities" and those will include Jewish communities as well. Even in the giant "melting pot" that is the United States, ethnic communities and areas bring are vibrant and I hope welcome (but bigotry is not a Quebec or just a Candadian thing)
I have never thought that much about it, as Saskboy said, I grew up with Hutterite colonies being all around Calgary and I never assumed that they were any less Canadian or Albertan, just Canadians who chose to live that way which makes them as Canadian as all of us.
Wendy (my wife) is from Guyana and grew up listening to racist comments although for her it wasn't as bad because in Brandon she was a) novelty and b) from a British colony.
I find it funny that people constantly use the examples of how the Irish or the Italians or whoever were once "not accepted". These historical assumptions are highly exagerated. The fact is that you cannot compare today's immigration to past immigration to Canada because historically we have always been a European,mostly french and english speaking country and immigration was also much more gradual than today's mass numbers imposed on the Canadian public. Although we had our differences most of us still always had a common European heritage with much in common. Now our government expects us to become a completely different country (which they have never had a mandate to do I might add)and somehow everything is going to be alright. Well it isn't going to be alright and we will see alot more problems in the future. We have increasingly, a country without an identity.
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