ReasonableAccommodations

CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT ENCROACHMENT

CITOYENS ANTI GOUVERNEMENT ENVAHISSANT

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS

This topic has been making the Quebec news all through the end of 2006 and early 2007. It's a topic that touches all of North America, if not all First World countries where immigration far outstrips emmigration. Lots of people are talking about it, but few have boiled the issues down as concisely and accurately as the Montreal Economic Institute's Nathalie Elgrably. Her article is in French. We provide you here with a link to the article on our French website, http://www.cagequebec.ca/index.php?pr=Articles and for those of you who would rather read an excellent English summary, please enjoy the following introduction by Beryl Wajsman of Institute of Public Affairs of Montreal:

"REASONABLE ACCOMODATION"

OR “UNREASONABLE FIXATION” ?

Dear colleagues,

I recently argued in “A Matter of Prejudice” http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=524&z=8 that the reasonable accommodation debate in Quebec was intellectually dishonest and covered with a veneer of age-old prejudice. It is occurring against a backdrop of political leaders who talk the talk of secular civil society yet when it comes to Christian religious symbols and symbolism jealousy guard them behind hypocritical arguments that “crucifixes in the National Assembly” are just part of “Quebec tradition” and that the “religious traditions of Quebec’s European founding cultures are part of Quebec’s values”. Teachers’ union leaders in day-cares complain of paid religious days for Jewish and Muslim colleagues but will not give up their Christian paid holidays. A Leger Marketing poll commissioned by Quebec's largest French newspaper and television network demonstrated that 59% of Quebecers considered themselves racist to one degree or another. An astonishing figure if the percentage was half that. Yet what was even more troubling were some of the ads promoting the poll. Below the question “Êtes-vous raciste?" were pictures of Hasidic Jews and Chador-clad Muslim women. Since when do religious beliefs have anything to do with race? Yet in today's Quebec that seems to be the subliminal message.

All this came to a head when the small Mauricie town of Hérouxville passed a municipal "charter" that included affirmations, among others, that women will not be stoned; faces will not be veiled; and the word Christmas will continue to be used. Immigrants are welcome but they must adapt to Quebec "values". Taken alone, and superficially, this minor outcry would almost seem an exercise in sarcastic repudiation of political correctness and the ever-growing parochial demands of Islam worldwide. Indeed, many American media sources reported on Hérouxville as an example of Quebec standing shoulder-to-shoulder with western liberal pluralism and the threat it now faces. After all, if this represents a defence of Quebec "values" then Quebec must truly have succeeded in its "Revolution tranquille", its quiet revolution, and accepted fidelity to free thought; separation of state and faith and repudiation of its pre-1960 xenophobia of "sang et langue", blood and language. But therein lays the problem.

The whole question of reasonable accommodation seems to turn only on matters of religion. And despite the occasional happy encounters that Quebec has had attempting to build a secular civil society that all leaders pay tribute to out of one side of their mouths, the other side still mouths platitudes that protect the centuries-old “accommodation” of privilege and preference given to Christian traditions and institutions. So where’s the equity? Not parity. Just equity. Where’s the real movement toward a level-playing field for all. Not a level playing field of submission to every parochial interest. But a movement toward a true “laity” in our public life and institutions.

To answer that question, and attempt to diffuse a political time-bomb, Premier Jean Charest appointed a commission on “reasonable accommodation” that is to report back in a year. Well, he might want to save the public some money and read the following position of Nathalie Elgrably of the Montreal Economic Institute in today’s “Journal de Montreal” entitled “Une fixation déraisonnable” – “An Unreasonable Fixation”. In it she presents a clear, courageous and compelling analysis of this whole debate. For those of you who don’t read French let me present a précis of her position.

Elgrably builds her case around three cardinal principles. First, that in the private sector there is no legitimate argument for any state imposed intervention. If parties, be they individual or institutional, decide between themselves to accommodate each other, this is a matter of freedom of contract. That freedom is one of the pillars of political freedom and should never be abridged as long as there is no public tort.

Secondly, as far as the public sector goes, vital basic services should be afforded to all citizens. If any person or group wants more or different services, such as women being treated by women doctors, then they should pay for them if the institution has none available. In other words it is reasonable to ask. But if the request cannot be accommodated, it should not be turned into a right that can prejudice public services by tearing them apart hither and yon pandering to every single particularity of every single group.

But Elgrably’s third, and perhaps most important point, is the “why” of the debate. She bluntly states that the goal of a secular society not to impose religion on all is right and just. Particularly not a common religion. But she dares Quebec to answer the following. Does the corollary of that position entitle the society to curtail private, individual religious imperatives if those imperatives do not burden or prejudice society at large. Because if the answer to the latter question is yes, then the issue in Quebec is not reasonable accommodation at all but an “unreasonable fixation” with religion.

I doubt if Mr. Charest’s commission will come up with a more lucid conclusion. ~ BPW

PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS

August 15, 2007 - We strongly encourage our Quebec members to participate in the public consultations on reasonable accommodations for ethnic minorities. Please visit http://www.accommodements.qc.ca/index-en.html to find out how you can participate.