WHAT IS DOING IN QUEBEC TODAY
QUEBEC — While presenting his proposals for a Charter of Quebec Values, Bernard Drainville, the Parti Québécois minister for democratic institutions, appealed to all Quebecers to ask their MNAs to vote for the charter, counting on “the popular will” to overcome its rejection by all three opposition parties in the National Assembly.
And to back up the charter, expected to be presented this fall, Drainville justified as “reasonable” a $1.9-million ad campaign and a website — nosvaleurs.gouv.qc.ca — to promote it.
But the Quebec Liberals, Coalition Avenir Québec and Québec solidaire all clearly said the PQ proposal goes too far and they will oppose it.
Outside the Assembly, political activist Jaggi Singh, of the immigrants’ rights group No One is Illegal, described the PQ charter as “totalitarian and hypocritical,” explaining that on one hand Drainville is telling non-Christian newcomers what to wear, while on the other maintaining the Catholic crucifix over the Speakers’ chair in the National Assembly.
Drainville, in presenting his proposals to formally designate Quebec as religiously neutral, said the crucifix in the Assembly and on Mount Royal symbolize Quebec’s “history” and will stay.
The assembly crucifix was introduced in 1936. Then-premier Maurice Duplessis explained the cross was given a “place of honour” in the assembly, cementing his alliance with the Roman Catholic church.
Singh said the PQ charter targets Muslim women and is “pandering to racists and xenophobic attitudes” in a bid to “get votes from bigots.”
Marc Tanguay, Quebec Liberal spokesman on identity issues, said the minority PQ government should “concentrate on what unites us and not what divides us,” suggesting a focus instead on “jobs, the economy and public finances.”
Drainville’s proposal calls for adding to Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms the notion that the state is neutral.
The Liberals and the Coalition Avenir Québec agree with this element.
But Drainville also wants to add to the rights charter, which enumerates Quebecers’ fundamental rights, rules for granting “religious accommodations.”
The PQ charter would require that such accommodations respect the equality of women and men, the neutrality of the state, the rights of others, health and safety, and the functioning of the organization.
The rights charter does not currently rank rights. The Supreme Court of Canada has established that “reasonable accommodation” to reconciling seeming conflicts among rights must be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Tanguay called the PQ ranking of rights “an attack on individual rights” that the Liberal opposition would not accept.
He recalled that when the Liberals added the equality of women and men to the rights charter in 2008, it was accepted unanimously, suggesting the PQ government would need unanimous support to amend the charter again to create a ranking of rights.
“You already know where we will be,” Tanguay said. “Quebecers can count on our action to defend civil rights, civil liberties.”
In the face of concerted Liberal opposition to Bill 14, the PQ government’s proposal to toughen up Bill 101, the Charter of the French language, Premier Pauline Marois has conceded Bill 14 is unlikely to pass.</strong>
Tanguay ridiculed an illustration accompanying Drainville’s explanations of the values charter, showing small crucifixes would be acceptable.
“It takes a pretty narrow vision to call for a tape measure to limit individual freedoms,” he said.
Nathalie Roy, of the Coalition Avenir Québec, asked whether a “religion police” would be called on to rule on the size of a permitted cross.
“It will be a real ‘calvaire,’ trying to explain this law,” Roy said, using the French word for “Calvary,” the place where Christ was crucified, to describe an impossible situation.
Roy called the PQ position “too radical,” noting the CAQ would only ban religious symbols worn by authority figures, namely judges, police and prison officers, and public school principals and teachers.
The CAQ might propose amendments to the PQ bill, Roy said. “But I have to see what’s in the law, because like they say, the devil is in the details.”
Françoise David, of Québec solidaire, said the crucifix should be removed from the assembly, but Muslim women who wear the hijab should be left alone, saying the head covering is “part of their identity.”
kdougherty@montrealgazette.com
GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE; THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.