Quebec-style ethnic nationalism rears its ugly head once again
Quebec-style ethnic nationalism rears its ugly head once again
Parti Qu?b?cois leader challenges members to lose their fear of appearing intolerant
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 4 hours ago
Maybe the reason it didn't receive more attention is that it happened after St. Jean Baptiste Day, when most of Quebec's political class is already on summer vacation.
And maybe it also was because the Parti Qu?b?cois leader who said it was speaking only to members of what now is reduced to a third party, not to the whole world as a premier on a referendum night.
But the few words leaped out of the much longer sound bite in the television news reports that evening, and the much longer quote buried deep in most newspaper stories the next day.
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Their effect on one listener, at least, was almost as chilling as that of Jacques Parizeau's spiteful pitting of "us" against "ethnic votes" in conceding the sovereignists' narrow defeat in the 1995 referendum.
For they point ominously in the direction Quebec politics is heading this fall.
They came in the middle of Pauline Marois's first speech as leader of the PQ, delivered in Quebec City on June 27.
"Let's stop being afraid," she said. "Afraid to be lucides. Afraid to be solidaires." This was a play on words, an allusion to the nicknames by which, respectively, the right and the left in the debate on Quebec's economic future are known.
She continued: "Afraid to seem intolerant.
"Afraid to do things another way. Afraid of wealth. Afraid of paths on which we have never set out. Afraid to be different.
"Afraid to speak of memory, of history, of people, of identity, of culture."
But what leaped out was the item buried in the middle of her list of fears to be overcome by members of her party: "To seem intolerant."
And once one has accepted to seem intolerant, how much is left to hold one back from actually being intolerant?
Parizeau, who has often complained of being a victim of "political correctness" after his 1995 concession speech, was in the audience to hear his latest successor complete his political rehabilitation 12 years later.
Marois also sounded some inclusive notes. "The anglophones and the first nations are part of our identity," she said, and Quebec culture is "enriched by those of newcomers."
But Marois is leader partly because her predecessor, Andr? Boisclair, resisted pandering to hysteria over the "reasonable accommodation" of non-Christian religious practices, and conceded such "identity" issues to Mario Dumont's Action d?mocratique du Qu?bec.
And Marois's remarks about not fearing to "seem intolerant" or to speak of "identity" show the PQ is trying to catch up with the revival of ethnic nationalism that has accompanied the ADQ's breakthrough in the March 26 election.
The Liberals also lost votes and seats to the ADQ in the election, and are also trying to reposition themselves on the "accommodation" issue as a result.
In a strongly worded passage in Premier Jean Charest's inaugural address at the opening of the new legislature in May, he said immigrants must accept Quebec values. And he said the charters of rights were never designed to allow "abuses" of the majority by minorities.
The week after Marois's speech, Charest announced that, as had been reported here, the Liberal Party was forming three policy task forces to begin drafting its platform for the next election. One of the task forces is on identity. The task forces are to report to a meeting of the party's general council in September.
That also will be one of the themes of the annual summer convention of the party's youth wing Aug. 10-12, the traditional kickoff of the fall political season in Quebec.
Also, the Bouchard-Taylor commission on accommodation, which Charest created before the election, is to begin the public phase of its work with the publication of a discussion paper.
The commission also is to hold public hearings across the province, which will keep attention focused on the accommodation issue through the fall.
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And with three parties competing for position in an election expected as early as next spring, Marois's generally overlooked remark about not being "afraid to seem intolerant" is not an encouraging sign.
The PQ has posted the prepared text of Marois's speech in French on its web site at www3.ca/?q=node/4
Parti Qu?b?cois leader challenges members to lose their fear of appearing intolerant
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 4 hours ago
Maybe the reason it didn't receive more attention is that it happened after St. Jean Baptiste Day, when most of Quebec's political class is already on summer vacation.
And maybe it also was because the Parti Qu?b?cois leader who said it was speaking only to members of what now is reduced to a third party, not to the whole world as a premier on a referendum night.
But the few words leaped out of the much longer sound bite in the television news reports that evening, and the much longer quote buried deep in most newspaper stories the next day.
Email to a friendPrinter friendly
Font:
Their effect on one listener, at least, was almost as chilling as that of Jacques Parizeau's spiteful pitting of "us" against "ethnic votes" in conceding the sovereignists' narrow defeat in the 1995 referendum.
For they point ominously in the direction Quebec politics is heading this fall.
They came in the middle of Pauline Marois's first speech as leader of the PQ, delivered in Quebec City on June 27.
"Let's stop being afraid," she said. "Afraid to be lucides. Afraid to be solidaires." This was a play on words, an allusion to the nicknames by which, respectively, the right and the left in the debate on Quebec's economic future are known.
She continued: "Afraid to seem intolerant.
"Afraid to do things another way. Afraid of wealth. Afraid of paths on which we have never set out. Afraid to be different.
"Afraid to speak of memory, of history, of people, of identity, of culture."
But what leaped out was the item buried in the middle of her list of fears to be overcome by members of her party: "To seem intolerant."
And once one has accepted to seem intolerant, how much is left to hold one back from actually being intolerant?
Parizeau, who has often complained of being a victim of "political correctness" after his 1995 concession speech, was in the audience to hear his latest successor complete his political rehabilitation 12 years later.
Marois also sounded some inclusive notes. "The anglophones and the first nations are part of our identity," she said, and Quebec culture is "enriched by those of newcomers."
But Marois is leader partly because her predecessor, Andr? Boisclair, resisted pandering to hysteria over the "reasonable accommodation" of non-Christian religious practices, and conceded such "identity" issues to Mario Dumont's Action d?mocratique du Qu?bec.
And Marois's remarks about not fearing to "seem intolerant" or to speak of "identity" show the PQ is trying to catch up with the revival of ethnic nationalism that has accompanied the ADQ's breakthrough in the March 26 election.
The Liberals also lost votes and seats to the ADQ in the election, and are also trying to reposition themselves on the "accommodation" issue as a result.
In a strongly worded passage in Premier Jean Charest's inaugural address at the opening of the new legislature in May, he said immigrants must accept Quebec values. And he said the charters of rights were never designed to allow "abuses" of the majority by minorities.
The week after Marois's speech, Charest announced that, as had been reported here, the Liberal Party was forming three policy task forces to begin drafting its platform for the next election. One of the task forces is on identity. The task forces are to report to a meeting of the party's general council in September.
That also will be one of the themes of the annual summer convention of the party's youth wing Aug. 10-12, the traditional kickoff of the fall political season in Quebec.
Also, the Bouchard-Taylor commission on accommodation, which Charest created before the election, is to begin the public phase of its work with the publication of a discussion paper.
The commission also is to hold public hearings across the province, which will keep attention focused on the accommodation issue through the fall.
Email to a friendPrinter friendly
Font:
And with three parties competing for position in an election expected as early as next spring, Marois's generally overlooked remark about not being "afraid to seem intolerant" is not an encouraging sign.
The PQ has posted the prepared text of Marois's speech in French on its web site at www3.ca/?q=node/4
posted by PDO at
6:17 AM
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