COUILLARD’S PARTING ADVICE LATE AS IDENTITY POLITICS REIGNITED
Philippe Couillard’s parting words are likely to ring ominously in our ears as Quebec plunges, once more, into a toxic and divisive debate over identity.
As he quit political life following a stinging defeat in Monday’s general election, the outgoing premier was uncharacteristically emotional as he left Quebecers with one final, heartfelt plea.
“I want to finish this declaration by speaking to you about rights. Over 400 years of history, we have defended them, at times through the ultimate sacrifice,” Couillard said Thursday. “They are contained in the Quebec and Canadian charters of rights and freedoms. They are precious and therefore fragile. Take good care of them.”
He went on to quote writer Amin Maalouf, who said the fate of minorities, along with that of women, is one of the most sure indicator’s of a society’s progress or regression.
“Our National Assembly, like all parliaments, has a duty to protect rights rather than restrain them in order to preserve its own legitimacy,” Couillard added. “In fact, it is one of our fundamental duties. The majority does not have all the rights.”
Quebecers should take these wise words to heart as we lurch, suddenly and sickeningly, from the relative social peace of the last four years, into the abyss of the next.
Three days after an election that turfed the Liberals from office after nearly 15 years, two days after premier-elect François Legault promised to ban police officers, teachers and judges from wearing religious garb and use the notwithstanding clause to override any constitutional challenges, one day after Coalition Avenir Québec MNAs confirmed that any public authority figures who refuse to comply with such dictates will lose their jobs — it’s starting.
The ugly us-versus-them rhetoric, the division, the alienation, the awakening of suspicion, the stoking of fear, the tacit declaration of open season on cultural and religious minorities and their rights. It’s like it’s 2014 all over again, except instead of a minority Parti Québécois government proposing these poisonous policies, it’s a newly elected majority with four years in which to wreak havoc.
Legault and the CAQ haven’t even been sworn in yet, and already they are confirming many Quebecers’ worst fears about the exclusionary, meanspirited and intolerant society they plan to lead. French farright leader Marine Le Pen has professed her delight. “Here we go again,” blared Le Journal de Montréal’s headline Thursday, heralding the return of identity politics. The tone seemed more gleeful than resigned.
Do Quebecers actually remember the nasty discourse over the PQ’s Charter of Values leading up to the 2014 election with fondness? That, coupled with uncer- tainty over sovereignty, was why voters went running back to the Quebec Liberals again a mere 18 months after booting them from office. Then, as now, the Liberals are the only party defending minority rights or offering an inclusive vision of Quebec society.
Certainly the PQ is not. Under exiting leader Jean-François Lisée, it was offering a teaspoon of sugar to go with the bitter medicine of its secularism char- ter 2.0 by pledging hiring practices to help diversify the public service. With Lisée quitting after losing his own riding and the party reeling from its own decimation, who knows where the PQ goes from here.
Not even the supposedly openarmed Québec solidaire parts ways on this matter with the CAQ and the PQ. Co-leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois affirmed Tuesday that QS supports the BouchardTaylor proscription on judges, police officers and prison guards wearing religious symbols like turbans, kippahs, hijab or crucifixes. It’s perplexing that a party of youth, social progressives and leftists, who ran a candidate who wears the hijab, bases its stance on a compromise reached by two old white men 10 years ago.
No disrespect intended to Charles Taylor and Gérard Bouchard; both have lamented at various times how their recommendation for authority figures has been misunderstood and worse, perverted, to justify all manner of alarming proposals.
Alas, the cerebral and eventempered Couillard’s impassioned defence of minority rights in his farewell speech, comes tragically late. His attempts to sound the alarm during the campaign perhaps lacked urgency as Legault succeeded in avoiding in-depth discussion of his party’s longtime position on religious dress. Scrutiny focused instead on the CAQ’s plans to reduce the number of immigrants and subject newcomers to language and values tests.
Of course, we can’t forget, the Liberals’ own hypocrisy. Bill 62, requiring an uncovered face in delivering or receiving public services, was racism and misogyny wrapped up in farce. The gamble that restricting the rights of a tiny minority of Muslim women who wear the niqab in order to appease the howling jackals of identity politics backfired badly. It failed to satiate those who view religion in all its forms with great suspicion. And it alienated the Liberals’ traditional supporters.
It might partly explain why many anglophones and allophones didn’t bother to vote in some Montreal ridings that remained Liberal. And may shed some light on the dismal turnout in many Liberal ridings that swung to the CAQ.
The Liberals have paid the political price for these miscalculations. But so, now, will we all, as Quebec stumbles into a new era of populist, nationalist turmoil.
Our National Assembly, like all parliaments, has a duty to protect rights rather than restrain them.