Quebec’s government this week introduced its much-discussed Charter of Quebec Values, which would ban “overt and conspicuous” religious symbols worn by government employees.
Pushing the twin ideals of secularism and separation from Canada, the Parti Quebecois’ plan would prohibit public employees from wearing large crosses and crucifixes, Islamic headscarves, Sikh turbans and Jewish yarmulkes as a way to establish “religious neutrality” in public.
The prohibitions would apply to civil servants, teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses and public day care employees.
This has a racist smell to it, and I do not use the word racist lightly. Let me explain: in the 1995 referendum on independence for Quebec, the No vote narrowly won, by a majority of 50.58%. It was felt that the votes by immigrants who had taken out Canadian citizenship had probably swung the result. (And in fact the federal government had speeded up citizenship applications before the referendum.) A consequence of this has been a determination by Quebec nationalists to neutralise immigrant influence. The provincial government now has the power, which it exercises, to direct immigrant children to attend a French language school, even if the child’s parents wish an anglophone education. And the effect of these new regulations would of course be to drive away from the province new or putative immigrants of conservative Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Sikh backgrounds. Thus preserving it for the Quebeckers who want independence, seemingly at any cost. As a Catholic I am dismayed that centuries of Catholic influence have been thrown off so quickly and so thoroughly. Narrow nationalism has triumphed. Of course, we also see here influence of French-style laïcité in which secularism is identified with progress and the Catholic Church with stultification. Sad, really, to see such a closing of minds and hearts and the triumph of narrow nationalism.
The attacks on professing a Christian point-of-view, be it via words or symbols, are becoming increasingly common. Earlier today, I saw an article from the Liberty Institute entitled [url=http://blog.libertyinstitute.org/2013/09/football-analyst-fired-for-expressing.html]Football Analyst Fired for Expressing Traditionally-Held Religious Beliefs,[/url] and now this. Author David Gregory predicted all this in his book, [url= “http://www.davidgregorybooks.com/media/books-last-christian.php”]The Last Christian,[/url] which takes the current culture and carries it to its logical conclusion some 80 years in the future. “Life Partner” 10 year contracts instead of marriage, lawsuits and criminal charges for disparaging other religions or placing Christianity above other religions, etc. Very prescient.
The sentiments behind the proposed charter have some interesting parallels with sentiments held by some segments of American society. More so than with those held in the rest of Canada.