Quebec, Canada not immune to malevolence

Anti-Islamic sentiment here predated Trump

As the search for answers begins about why a gunman massacred worshippers at a Quebec City mosque Sunday evening, one thing is abundantly clear: Quebec and Canada are not immune from the dark forces of intolerance sweeping the world.

We don’t yet know exactly what motivated the shooter’s heinous killing spree, although a portrait is emerging of the suspect as an anti-social loner. We do know the victims were targeted because of who they were, according to authorities.

Police and political leaders were quick to call the crime an act of terrorism. But circumstances suggest that this is also a hate crime perpetrated against Muslims, the result of an ugly rising tide of Islamophobia.

There was an admirable show of support for members of Quebec’s Muslim community Monday. Politicians of all stripes and levels of government turned up to voice their horror about this unprecedented attack. Premier Philippe Couillard and Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume laid their hands on the shoulders of grief-stricken Muslim leaders as they expressed their shock and despair.

But as Couillard correctly noted, the challenge is not in expressing solidarity in the wake of unspeakable tragedy; the most important thing is to demonstrate fellowship every day, in all circumstances.

It is easy to blame U.S. President Donald Trump for a surge in Islamophobia. His incendiary rhetoric has normalized xenophobia. His election victory has emboldened far-right movements to come out of the shadows. Now we see this taking the form of policy in his executive order Friday temporarily barring travellers from seven Muslim majority countries from the United States.

But we must also face the fact that Islamophobia has been steadily rising here in Canada, too. And it started long before Trump took office. In Quebec we’ve seen evidence of this for over a decade now.

From hysteria over a cabane à sucre removing pork from its traditional dishes for a visiting group of Muslims to Hérouxville’s bylaw banning wife-burning, the community has been the subject of misconceptions and stereotypes. But instead of trying to dispel myths and foster inter-cultural understanding, some politicians and commentators — though certainly not all — have sought to exploit fear of Muslims.

An inordinate amount of time has been devoted to discussing the dangers of the niqab, a face-covering worn by only a tiny fraction of Muslim women. The Parti Québécois’s Charter of Values, which sought to restrict religious garb for public employees, was largely aimed at the head scarves many Muslim women wear, even if other minorities would have been caught up by the ill-fated policy as well.

Despite Quebecers rejecting the Charter when it turfed the PQ from office in 2014, many politicians still can’t resist the lure of dogwhistle politics. Just this past summer, François Legault, the Coalition Avenir Québec leader, tried to score points by calling for a ban on the burkini, a full-body bathing suit.

Meanwhile, PQ leader Jean-François Lisée raised unfounded concerns about Muslim women hiding AK47s under their burkas. Perhaps worse, he also sought to undermine a rival for the party leadership by disparaging him for wishing Muslims a happy Eid, as if acknowledging this happy occasion was somehow indecent. More recently, Lisée has tried to turn over a new leaf by celebrating diversity and inviting minorities to join the PQ.

But openness and inclusivity is not something you preach when it’s convenient. It’s a message that must be repeated all the time. Politicians who fan the flames of intolerance and then walk away are still responsible for the fires they may have kindled.

On the federal scene, too, there have been unfortunate flare-ups of identity politics. Conservative Party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch has vowed to import Trump’s “exciting” message to Canada. She has pledged to administer a values test to new immigrants and charge them for the cost.

During the 2015 federal election, the Conservatives under former prime minister Stephen Harper proposed a snitch line for members of the public to report “barbaric cultural practices.” It read like a thinly veiled attempt to portray Muslims as having values at odds with those of their fellow Canadians.

Bit by bit, year by year, these drive-by smears feed intolerance. Rhetoric that dehumanizes is dangerous. It fosters an us-versus-them dynamic that divides society, rather than unify it. It causes prejudice to grow from the seeds of suspicion and ignorance. As the terrifying ascent of Trump has shown: words matter greatly. The Parti Québécois’s Charter of Values, which sought to restrict religious garb for public employees, was largely aimed at the head scarves many Muslim women wear.