The Parti Québécois strategy? Go ugly

ing and other practices directed at all the imaginary Muslims that councillors in the rural town apparently feared, sparking a province-wide debate on hypothetical moral quandaries involving hypothetical minority demands.

This time around, for the sake of balance, Mr. Drainville has raised the issue of Montreal’s Jewish community.

Seemingly out of the blue, Mr. Drainville stated his objection to Montreal city workers covering up “no parking” signs during Jewish festivities, a long-standing accommodation for those who feel they cannot move their cars during the holiday. Mr. Drainville is using any excuse to reopen the accommodation debate, as it is seen as playing well with the PQ’s base.

How Mr. Drainville’s forthcoming charter will read is a mystery. During the last election campaign, I asked now-Premier Pauline Marois myself about the more controversial wardrobe rules: What forms of dress would be acceptable for public employees, since religious symbols would be banned? Her answers were vague; a discrete crucifix around the neck would be permissible due to Quebec’s Catholic heritage, but a yarmulke, of the type worn by one Jewish borough mayor in Montreal … well, who knows?

Author and anti-Islamist activist Djemila Benhabib, a PQ candidate in last year’s election, pointed out that no credible secularism plan could be adopted without first removing the crucifix from above the speaker’s chair in the National Assembly in Quebec City. (It’s not even really a part of the building’s “heritage,” as it’s been in place only since 1936.) But removing it is out of the question, Mr. Drainville said. He’s not even offering a pretence of being even-handed.

The PQ isn’t a bunch of hard-boiled racists. Most of its members probably don’t even think too much about religion. What really drives them is Francosupremacy — not only ensuring the French character of the public sector (which is a legitimate goal), but also increasingly imposing French monolingualism on the world of private commerce and schooling (which is not). And identity-politics demagoguery is seen as a means to this end.

The PQ hopes to force Quebecers to make a false choice between a secular (read: French-Catholic) Quebec and a threatening multi-cultural mishmash of menorahs and hijabs and people speaking who-knows-what language to one another. It’s not a question of coming to a consensus on “Quebec values.” It is simply an attempt to take a shortcut to sovereignty by manufacturing ugly grievances.