[Marxism] Quebec's debate on 'reasonable accommodation' - a socialist view

["Richard Fidler" <rfidler_8@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In recent months Quebec has been immersed in a collective debate on its
?national identity?. It erupted in 2006 when the mass media began making a
fuss about a few incidents in which members of minority ?cultural
communities? ? mainly Muslims, but also Jews, Sikhs and others ? had
requested and in some cases obtained measures to accommodate their
particular religious beliefs. 

Some Muslim students, pursuant to a complaint to Quebec?s human rights
commission, had been allocated prayer space in an engineering school. A
community health clinic had organized women-only prenatal classes for some
Muslims. A school?s ruling that a Sikh student could not wear his kirpan, or
ceremonial dagger, because it was a ?weapon? was overturned by the Supreme
Court, which recognized the kirpan as a religious artefact. Hassidic Jews
had requested, and paid for, the frosting of the windows of a YMCA gym to
shield teenage males at their neighbouring school from the sight of females
working out. 

These and similar incidents ? all equally banal ? were given greater weight
when Mario Dumont, the leader of the right-wing Action démocratique party
(ADQ), seized on them to campaign in opposition to ?unreasonable
accommodation? of such practices and in defence of ?Quebec values and
identity?. His message resonated in some circles. In one notorious incident,
the council in Hérouxville, a small town north of Trois-Rivières, posted a
?code of conduct? instructing prospective immigrants that they would not
tolerate certain practices such as ?the stoning of women?. 

The opposition to ?accommodation? of minorities was clearly motivated in
part by the climate of fear of ?others? generated by the ?war on terror?,
and the media attention was not unrelated to the Islamophobia that is part
and parcel of the campaign in support of Canada?s military intervention in
Afghanistan. But it soon became clear that this xenophobia ? or
?heterophobia? as some call it ? also reflected some deeper concerns and
insecurities about the status and future of the French language and culture
within the native Francophone population, an 80% majority within Quebec but
a 20% minority within Canada.

Full:
http://lifeonleft.blogspot.com/2007/12/quebecs-debate-on-reasonable.html



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