Vol. 77/No. 35      October 7, 2013

Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville unveiled the charter Sept. 10, saying the PQ will introduce the bill in Quebec’s National Assembly this fall. “The time has come to rally around our common values,” Drainville said at the news conference. “They define who we are.” Under the pretext of defending the separation of church and state and equality between men and women, the PQ intends to prohibit government employees from wearing Muslim, Sikh and Jewish headwear or visible crucifixes at work.

More than 700,000 workers are employed in the public health, education and other civil services, close to a fifth of Quebec’s workforce. Drainville said he intends to press private bosses to emulate the charter’s measures.

The charter would deny access to state services to anyone seeking them while having his or her face covered.

Other bourgeois politicians, including leaders of the ruling Conservatives and the New Democratic and Liberal parties in English-speaking Canada, denounced the charter as an example of the so-called reactionary character of Quebecois national aspirations. The Quebecois people are an oppressed nationality in Canada based on their language, French. They represent some 80 percent of Quebec’s population.

The three opposition parties in Quebec’s National Assembly — the Liberal Party of Quebec, Québec Solidaire and Coalition Avenir Quebec — also raised questions about the charter.

But the most significant opposition has come from two fronts the PQ clearly didn’t expect — the ranks of the Quebec nationalist movement itself and in the street.

In less than five days, more than 12,000 people signed online a “Manifesto for an inclusive Quebec” that rejects the reactionary restrictions. Signers include many well-known Quebecois artists, journalists and university professors.

Quebec’s three main trade union federations — the Quebec Federation of Labor, the Confederation of National Trade Unions and the Quebec Trade Unions Federation — held off taking a stand, saying they will organize a discussion among their ranks.

Maria Mourani resigned Sept. 13 from the Bloc Quebecois, the PQ’s sister party in Ottawa, after she was expelled from the party’s caucus for denouncing the charter as “ethnic nationalism.” Of Lebanese origin, she was one of only five BQ members in Parliament.

Some 10,000 people — the overwhelming majority Muslim immigrants from North Africa — protested the charter in Montreal Sept. 14, responding to a call by a newly formed Quebec Collective Against Islamophobia.

“It divides society. It’s against human rights and discriminatory,” Abderrazak Raji, a programmer, told the Militant.

“For people in positions of authority,” said Stéphanie Mitchell, a student and office worker, wearing a religious symbol “could be more of a problem. But for teachers, day care workers, even customs officials at the border — I don’t see what’s the problem.” Supporters of Joseph Young, Communist League candidate for Montreal mayor, met Mitchell campaigning door to door in her neighborhood Sept. 14.

“All that should have been stopped 15, 25 years ago,” said Norman Godin, a retired mechanic, who backs the charter. “There have been too many accommodations” to immigrants’ religious and cultural practices.

“It’s not the government’s business to decide how we dress. There’s no problem with a woman wearing a veil at work,” Haitian-born Davidson Destiné told a supporter of the Communist League campaign at work at the Plat du Chef food processing plant.

Before Drainville’s announcement of the planks of the charter, 57 percent of Quebecois told pollsters they supported the idea. After the announcement, support fell to 43 percent, with 42 percent opposed. The rejection is highest among English speakers and those whose first language is neither French nor English.

Myriam Marceau contributed to this article.
 
 
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