page 10
opinions
Comprehending the incomprehensible Charte des valeurs
Québécoises
TRAVIS WEAGANT
Editor-in-Chief
dians, I don’t reject the PQ, their counterparts
the Bloc Québécois, or other sovereigntists out
of hand simply because of a separatist agenda.
Last year, I wrote an editorial after
Québec’s provincial election, and
claimed that there was no reason
to fear Pauline Marois’ Parti
Québécois government. Being
a minority government taking
power at a time when fiscal realities force difficult decisions about
taxation and spending, the PQ
was hobbled by their lack of power
in the legislature and by the empty
treasury. Their more controversial
(read: sovereigntist) agenda was
dead in the water. I maintain that
these things are true: sovereignty
is off the table, and there is still no
money to spend.
ham in 1759 (which occurred so long ago that
France was still ruled by a man called Louis)
to be disappointing and deliberately devoid of
intellectual effort.
I have also been thus far
unsuccessful in locating the
source of the a priori assumption that a sovereign Québec
would be “unable to survive on
its own.” Incidentally, Québec’s
largest trading partner is the
United States, and the province conducts more trade with
Americans than it does with
other Canadians. The United
Kingdom, France, and Italy
each export less to the US than
Québec does.
Furthermore, there is a sizeable contingent of anglophone
On the other hand, I appear to
Canadians that are hostile to
QUÉBEC PREMIER PAULINE MAROIS REACTS AFTER A MEMBER
have underestimated the resourcethe very mention of our franOF HER CABINET ARRIVES AT A CAUCUS MEETING WEARING
fulness of some politicians when
cophone province or its inhabCUFFLINKS THAT LOOK KIND OF LIKE ORTHODOX CROSSES.
they are backed into a corner. I
itants purely because of their
don’t happen to believe that every
mother tongue and its perpolitician on the planet is as cynical as Mme.
I find the knee-jerk talking points about
ceived “infiltration” into the rest of Canadian
Marois, but her party’s capacity for calculated
“destroying this great country” and the ama- society, or because of the political views of a
opportunism nearly killed my optimistic out- teur cultural psychoanalysis that points to some
certain subset of that province’s population, be
look.
supposed bitterness stemming from the French
they sovereigntist, socialist, or both. Is it any
army’s defeat at the Battle of the Plains of Abra- wonder that there are some who want out?
Let me begin by saying that, unlike many Cana-
Be who you are.
Let the record show that I am not a sovereigntist, though I must say I could not give fewer
flying farts about the issue. My point is that
such a position has an evidentiary basis, and
merits to debate. The latest from the PQ, however, is distasteful, cynical, and based not upon
evidence, or even ideology, but upon electoral
strategy.
For those of you who have been keeping up with
your readings instead of the news (can’t say
I’m one of you, but I forgive you), the policy to
which I refer is the “Charter of Québec Values.”
The proposed legislation, which the Government has not yet tabled in the National Assembly, proposes five things:
1.Amending the Quebec Charter of Rights and
Freedoms to include a declaration that public
institutions are secular;
2.Establishing a duty of religious neutrality
for all state personnel;
Law is what we do, but it doesn’t define us. We’re looking for
individuals who are passionate about everything in life, including
being a lawyer. If this sounds like you, please check us out at
www.torys.com to learn more about us.
3.Limiting the wearing of “conspicuous religious symbols;”
4.Making it mandatory to uncover one’s face
when giving or receiving a state service, and
» continued on next page
monday - september 30 - 2013
the obiter dicta