Only The White Hoods Are Missing In Pauline Marois' PQ

Pauline Marois continues her attack on the language
and religious rights of non-francophone/Christians

Sometimes I think we have become so jaded that in our rush to pick over the minutia of political campaigns we overlook and ignore the real threats. We are quick to condemn the other side and even more quick to forgive and embrace the sins on ours. We are particularly forgiving when the mea culpa is accompanied by a few handouts and entitlements.

There is an election campaign in Quebec right now and along with the usual promises to clean up government and hand out more cash, there is a disturbing undercurrent that has more in common with the darker side of human history than with a modern society like Canada.

History is littered with the remains of oppressive regimes led by those who rose to power through oppression and there were always excuses for suppressing the rights of others; racial purity, defending religion, protecting the rights of natural-born citizens and the list goes on. Inevitably, these regimes failed because they were built on intolerance, bigotry and fear.

Now, Pauline Marois, the leader of the PQ in Quebec has brought that same thinking and prejudiced rhetoric to the election campaign. If Mme Marois is elected and gets her way, she will take Quebec even further down the road to xenophobia and intolerance than her predecessors tried to do in the past.

To put it more succinctly, Mme Marois is a cultural and linguistic racist.

She is lost in the same mythology that drove people like Adolph Hitler, Radovan Karadžić and Slobodan Milošević. It may seem extreme to some, perhaps even offensive, to compare Mme Marois to some of the most notorious war criminals in history because Mme Marois does not promote violence against anyone. But if her proposals are non-violent, they mirror the same fears and willingness to oppress the rights of other citizens to protect her misguided concept of cultural purity.

Mme Marois states unequivocally that she is determined to protect the true Quebec culture and heritage and the obvious question is; from what? Culture evolves. It is the natural state of a society and includes the contribution of all within it. Bigots and racists always pick some arbitrary moment in time as the ideal and then defend that ideal to the point of suppressing and taking away the rights of others.

Mme Marois’ proposals to ban all religious symbols in public including the hijab, the kirpan and the yarmulke have nothing to do with protecting the French language and everything to do with being afraid of anything that is different. It betrays a lack of confidence in the vibrancy of the Quebec culture and the strength of its people. It betrays a fear and insecurity that is common to every racist group throughout the history of the world.

Her willingness to ban religious symbols does not include the Crucifix that hangs in the National Assembly or Christian symbols in general. To get around an accusation of religious intolerance and hypocrisy, Mme Marois has attempted to claim that these symbols are actually cultural symbols of the heritage of Quebec rather than religious. How absurd.

Every religion in Quebec is part of the cultural heritage of the province. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists are all part of the broader society that defines the province and its history and culture. Mme Marois’ twisted logic is the same twisted logic of all who try to rationalize their fear and discomfort, their hatred, for that which is different from their own held beliefs.

Hitler didn’t start out with concentration camps; he started out with rallying cries about the German people. There were Germans and there was everyone else. If you weren’t of true German blood as Hitler defined it, you weren’t German even if you were born in Germany. Jews, gypsies, foreigners and later the Slavic peoples were all treated as lesser peoples and their rights as citizens were suppressed and much later, millions died as a result.

I seriously doubt that Mme Marois has any thought of opening up concentration camps for anyone in Quebec who is not a true French Quebecer but I do believe that her narrow-minded and bigoted policies are a threat to the future and success of the province in which I live. Any society that will not protect the rights of a minority eventually will have little respect for the rights of the majority as well.

Mme Marois and her supporters are in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In other words, Mme Marois has more in common with rogue regimes like North Korea, Syria, Iran and China than she does with the values of virtually every democratic country in the world.

How she thinks she can build a successful and free society on a basis of xenophobia, fear and an unbelievable belief that the Quebec people and culture are incapable of not only surviving but thriving without the need to suppress the rights of fellow citizens is beyond me. I have lived n Quebec for a long time and know without question that the people of Quebec do not need the Pauline Marois' of the world to protect them They are vibrant, creative and hard-working and have built one of the most colourful and vibrant cultures in North America. Culture comes from the people, not from cynical politicians and a narrow-minded intelligentsia.

Liberal Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest
who lacks the courage and character to defend
the rights of non-French citizens in his
provinces while depending on their votes to
keep him in office.

What is even more unbelievable to me is that nationalist politicians like the current Premier, Jean Charest, lack the character, integrity and courage to stand up for the rights of all those minority Quebec citizens now threatened by the likes of Pauline Marois and the PQ.

This isn’t, as some have characterize it, just more of Quebec trying to drain more cash and power from the federal government nor is it merely a rational and acceptable program to protect a language and a culture. It is racism, an attempt to purify the race at the expense of the rights of others.

It should be unacceptable and fought in this day and age and definitely in Canada, where religious, racial and cultural tolerance is the standard, not the exception. Every Canadian, in every province including Quebec, should be outraged by this narrow-minded, intolerant prejudice.

The only things missing in Pauline Marois's PQ are the Klan's white hoods and some wood to make crosses to burn on the lawns of anyone who doesn't fit her narrow definition of what constitutes a true citizen of Quebec.

The sad thing is that most Canadians will be apathetic about it while many in Quebec will simply follow along blindly. It is small wonder our societies are eroding rather than growing.

RELATED

The UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/CH37-4-3-2002E.pdf

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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