Legault wants you to forget what he said two summers ago
Calls for ‘values test’ for new immigrants now coming back to haunt CAQ leader
There seems to be a new way for Quebec politicians to defend themselves when called out for stirring the pot of identity politics. They accuse their critics of calling them racists.
In what might be a preview of the campaign leading up to the October election, Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault has professed himself stung after Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão dared warn voters — in English, no less — that the CAQ, like the Parti Québécois, preaches what he calls “ethnic-based nationalism.”
Never mind that Leitão never used the word racist in his initial comments to the Montreal Gazette’s West Island section (although he did in denying he used the term in the first place). It was Legault, in demanding an apology, who injected the epithet, saying: “Quebecers are fed up with this line that people who don’t think like the Liberals are racists.”
Quebecers hate nothing more than being called racist. An allegation of racism against one is often interpreted as an attack on all. Offence is deeply felt and the label strenuously resisted. After all, a new Léger poll shows 16 per cent of Quebecers declared themselves racists, slightly above the Canadian average of 14 per cent, but lower than Manitoba, where 23 per cent of respondents admitted to being racist.
Nursing their wounds from this “mudslinging,” the CAQ, backed by the PQ, tried to lure the Liberals into a debate along the lines of the “Bonjour-Hi” debacle. The CAQ proposed a motion calling on MNAs to recognize “that no political party represented at the National Assembly of Quebec advocates ethnic nationalism.” The Liberals declined to play ball and instead tried to lob some of Legault’s more controversial pronouncements on identity issues back at him.
Despite all the umbrage and the outrage, the real issue here is Legault’s own past comments catching up with him at an inconvenient time. After curbing his populist rhetoric over the last year, Legault is riding high in the polls and perhaps poised to be the next premier if, per chance, he can win over a few anglophones, minorities and moderates disenchanted after 15 years (minus 18 months) of Liberal rule.
Back in the summer of 2016, however, when he was vying for attention, Legault was willing to blow the dog whistle of identity politics until Quebecers’ ears bled.
He called for a “values test” for new immigrants to Quebec, with failure eventually leading to ejection. Among the criteria for exclusion, he said, could be favouring religious dress or just modest beach wear.
The CAQ proposed banning the burkini, a full-body bathing suit that isn’t even a religious garment. France had just outlawed it, so Legault expressed his own “malaise” at the apparent prospect of a woman not showing enough flesh at the pool to prove her gender-equality bona fides.
Among other ideas: the CAQ demanded a cut in immigration levels; investigations of imams to vet them for their adherence to Quebec values before allowing new mosques to open; and suspension of charter provisions on freedom of expression to prevent fundamentalists from undermining Quebec values.
Legault also shuddered at Montreal Police following in the footsteps of the RCMP by allowing officers to wear the hijab. In his view, no authority figure, from teacher to judge, should be permitted to wear religious symbols.
And speaking of teachers, the CAQ released an inflammatory ad that showed pictures of Premier Philippe Couillard and PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée beside that of a woman clad in black from head to toe. It bore the tag line: “Couillard and Lisée are in favour of chadors for teachers in our schools. Only the CAQ defends our values.”
Perhaps Legault is now trying to tear a page from Lisée’s successful leadership-bid playbook. After wringing his hands about AK-47s being concealed under burkas and painting his rival, Alexandre Cloutier, as too cosy with Muslims because he dared wish them a happy Eid, Lisée had the gall to use his victory speech to reach out to minorities and anglophones.
Now that it’s no longer convenient to pick on immigrants and single out Muslims, Legault is trying to turn the tables on Leitão by making it seem like he’s the one prone to exaggeration and smears.
It’s no secret that one of the Quebec Finance Minister’s main reasons for jumping into politics was his disgust with the ugly and polarizing debate around the PQ’s Charter of Values. Himself an immigrant from Portugal, Leitão wanted to fight exclusion and show that newcomers like him can rise to the top of Quebec society. This is an issue dear to Leitão’s heart.
Perhaps it’s useful to define ethnic nationalism. Wikipedia summarizes the political concept at its most basic as a nationalism based on “a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith and a common ethnic ancestry.” Presumably it’s the association with ethnic nationalism’s more nefarious consequences over the centuries — exclusion, discrimination, racism, war, bloodshed and genocide — that so offends the CAQ.
But dangerous forms of nationalism are on the rise again around the globe. We see it in Brexit and the resurgence of white supremacists in Charlottesville and in U.S President Donald Trump’s attempts to build a wall to keep out Mexicans or ban travellers from majority Muslim countries.
Quebec is not immune from these forces. Far right groups like La Meute are gaining traction. Worshippers at a Quebec City mosque were massacred by a lone gunman.
Over the last decade, many Quebec politicians have fanned the flames of suspicion and enmity over what constitutes reasonable accommodation for minority religious rights and lamented the demise of shared values.
At least while it served their purpose.
But now that a majority could be in his grasp and he’s trying to look statesmanlike, Legault’s divisive rhetoric risks coming back to haunt him. That’s the real nerve Leitão hit.