Les députés québécois unanimes: pas plus de racisme au Québec qu’ailleurs (Quebec MNAs Unanimous: Quebec No More Racist than Elsewhere), Geneviève Lajoie, Journal de Québec, 2023-03-15.
Members of all political parties in the National Assembly are unanimous: there is no more racism in Quebec than elsewhere. On the initiative of Minister Jean-François Roberge, Quebec elected officials adopted a motion affirming that Quebec forms one of the most open and welcoming nations “in the world.” The text, supported by all the political parties, stipulates:
“That the National Assembly […] denounces without reserve any accusation to the effect that racism is more rooted here, that it also denounces prejudices maintained against Quebec, as well as any suggested link between racism and Bill 21.”
Congratulations to the Quebec National Assembly for adopting this motion unanimously. Even the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) and Quebec Solidaire (QS) supported it. We know that Quebec is no more racist than anywhere else; some data would even indicate the opposite, that Quebecers are rather less racist.
We also know that the various accusations of racism (and other slurs) launched repeatedly against Quebec and Quebecers are made for a very tendentious purpose: to oppose secularism by gratuitously denigrating those who support it. Firstly, Bill 21 deals only with religion, not race; to deliberately conflate race and religion is a dishonest strategy used by many anti-secularists. Moreover, apart from any racial question, this law is not even discriminatory because it applies to all religions and to any person occupying one of the jobs covered by the provisions of this law.
We commend the MNAs for resolutely rejecting the gratuitous slander so frequently uttered by religious fanatics and their useful idiots who oppose secularism.
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State neutrality in religious matters is the law of the land, with the Supreme Court of Canada 2015 unanimous ruling outlawing the city council of Saguenay’s christian prayers and icons.
Bill 21 is superb recognition of the constitutional principle established in that case. Justice Clemont Gascon, a Quebec Catholic, wrote the decision.
Quebec legislature deserves praise not criticism.