A setback for Quebec
In the wake of the terrible massacre at a Quebec City mosque earlier this year, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard spoke about the need for his province, like all societies, to grapple with its “demons,” the “xenophobia, racism, exclusion” within. He said it was time to “act together to show the direction we want our society to evolve.”
This week, by foiling a proposal for a Muslim cemetery near Quebec City, a handful of residents in the small town of St-Apollinaire made clear the disgraceful “direction they want their society to evolve” — one where the demons that Couillard described are nourished rather than attacked, and where the Muslim community, in a moment of growing vulnerability, continues to be victimized and excluded.
Clearly, the 19 voters who rejected the cemetery do not define the province. Nor does La Meute, the fearmongering far-right Facebook group that led the campaign against the proposal. But what Quebecers do now matters. They should stand together in condemning the vote. And their leaders, including Couillard, should consider the role they have played in stoking fear and hate in the province.
The decision to block the proposal is particularly disturbing because there are no Muslim cemeteries near Quebec City and only one in the entire province, a fact highlighted when the six men killed in the mosque shooting last January had to be moved away from their homes and families to be buried in accordance with their faith.
Apparently that was just fine with the voters who rejected the proposal.
The project’s opponents claim their concern has nothing to do with Islam, but simply with the idea of any cemetery that excludes on the basis of religion. In other words, all dead people matter. Strange, then, that the detractors seem wholly unconcerned about, for example, Quebec City’s Franciscan, Ursuline, Lutheran and Jewish cemeteries.
It’s hard to read the vote as anything other than yet another expression of a growing anti-Muslim feeling in this country and in Quebec in particular. In that province, a decade of toxic debates about supposed threats to Quebec values, about hijabs and niqabs and “reasonable accommodation,” has taken its toll.
Hate crimes in Canada against Muslims have tripled over the past three years and, in Quebec, the rate is even higher. In the days following the mosque massacre, police in the province reported a particularly acute spike in such crimes.
For this, the province’s leaders, who have too often pandered to baseless fears and unjustified resentments, own much responsibility. As Couillard noted in his insightful speech after the shooting, political rhetoric can have a real impact in the real world. “Freedom of speech has consequences, good ones and bad ones,” Couillard said at the time.
Yet not a week after the massacre, the premier was pushing a bill to ban public servants from wearing face coverings at work. In June, Couillard said you can’t separate terrorism from Islam. His chief political rivals, meanwhile, have often criticized him for not going far enough down this path.
The premier understands the power of politicians’ words to shape public consciousness.
He knows better than anyone that disgraceful displays like the one in St-Apollinaire will continue until he and his colleagues have the decency and courage to put crass political considerations aside and stand up for all Quebecers — regardless of their religion.
Quebecers should stand together in condemning the vote. And their leaders should consider the role they play in stoking fear and hate