The ugly fallout:

It is perhaps not all that surprising there has been a rise in racist incidents since the debate over the Parti Québécois government’s proposed Charter of Quebec Values erupted last month.

Bernard Drainville, the minister responsible for pushing the charter, was quick to deny any connection between the charter controversy and the defacing of a Chicoutimi mosque. (Its façade was sprayed with what appeared to be pig’s blood, and a letter was left at the doorstep denouncing Islam and telling its adherents to “assimilate or go home.”) Drainville appropriately deplored the action, but dismissed it as an isolated incident.

But subsequent incidents that have come to light make it difficult for the government to maintain the posture that the ugly confrontations are unrelated to the PQ’s plan to ban the wearing of religious accoutrements by public-sector employees.

A report has emerged about a nasty confrontation at a Quebec City shopping mall in which a woman accosted a Muslim family, demanding that the wife remove her hijab and, when she declined, telling her that the government would shortly force her to do so. A shoving match ensued, during which the attacker spat on the family’s son.

The accosting woman’s reference to government action strongly suggests that her outburst was inspired by the charter controversy. Reinforcing this is the family’s statement that this is the first time they have been confronted with such venom in the 14 years they have lived in Quebec.

Also this week, a video surfaced showing a man berating a hijab-wearing woman on a Montreal city bus. In an altercation that lasted for at least five minutes, the man told the woman to go back to her country.

And these are just incidents that have made a media splash. There have probably been more. The Muslim Council of Montreal says it has received at least a dozen complaints about racial slurs, one of which also involved a physical attack, since a news report leaked details of the charter. Jacques Frémont, the head of Quebec’s human-rights commission, said this week that the commission has indications that there have been many more incidents than have been reported by the media.

It is all very well for government figures to call for calm and urge a respectful debate on the charter, as Drainville did on Monday. But such pleas have been made before, with apparently limited effect. Doubtless it was not the government’s intent to spark racist confrontations in the streets, but it surely should have envisaged the possibility of this happening once it proposed a charter that singles out people who wear symbols of their religious belief.

Action is needed to defuse this mounting controversy. Drainville indicated Monday that the ban on religious symbols being worn by public servants, the most contentious aspect of the charter, could be taken out of the proposed legislation — though he added that this will not happen “right now.”

If not right now, it should be done very soon — before things get even more ugly.