Tolerating intolerance

How ironic that a federal government that has staked its foreign-affairs reputation on being a champion of religious freedom, in distant lands, is missing in action when a provincial government in Canada proposes a plan that will limit the religious freedom of some Canadians.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to have lost his voice when the Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois announced a plan to introduce a Charter of Quebec Values that will restrict the rights of religious minorities to practice their faith. In the name of Quebec’s special cultural imperative, its government will prevent minorities such as Muslims, Jews, Sikhs from wearing religious headgear in publicly funded facilities such as schools, hospitals and provincial offices.

But Harper is in good company. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s silence was also deafening, and when he finally did speak, he refused to criticize it, saying the NDP will wait to see the details of what’s in the charter first.

The only federal leader to come out with flying colours is Justin Trudeau, who condemned the proposed charter as unworthy of Quebec, and stressed his opposition to it.

This is not the first time Harper and Mulcair have refused to take a stand when minority rights are threatened in Quebec. When the Quebec soccer association infamously banned turbans from soccer fields, preventing hundreds of Sikh children from playing the game, Harper and Mulcair went underground. Not a peep from them. Again Trudeau was the only one to condemn intolerance when he saw it, even in Quebec. For calculated political reasons, Mulcair, whose NDP won 59 of the 75 Quebec seats in the last election, seems to be mortally afraid to say anything against the separatists for fear of losing votes.

Harper’s silence is more troubling because as prime minister, the country expects him to stand up for all Canadians, especially when their rights are under threat. Indeed, it is mystifying how a party that has ferociously courted new immigrants in English Canada, and won their votes, can turn a blind eye when the rights of these same people are subverted in Quebec. And don’t forget that this is the same government that has established an Office of Religious Freedom, backed by millions of dollars, to promote religious freedom abroad, “... and advocate on behalf of religious minorities under threat...” It boggles the mind how the Harper Conservatives can stand up against religious discrimination in far-flung foreign lands, but lose their courage to speak out when it is being promoted or encouraged in their own backyard.

Clearly the federal Conservative party and the NDP have decided that Quebec votes are more important than principle. How sad.