'Canadian style' multiculturalism a menace to Quebec, commission hears

Quebec's heartland may be far from immigrant-rich big cities, but it cried out Tuesday for protection from the "Canadian multiculturalism" that is causing a clash with minority cultural practices.

The latest instalment ofthe Bouchard-Taylor commission dedicated to letting Quebecers vent on the accommodation ofminorities hit a hotbed of debate halfway between Quebec City and Montreal.

The region includes Hérouxville, the town of 1,300 that adopted a code of conduct earlier this year that included a ban on stoning women.

Among dozens of speakers at the travelling road show on reasonable accommodation, a majority were worried that new arrivals are failing to respect Quebec values.

The definition of those values ranged wildly, from fostering secular civil society and feminism to protecting Catholic traditions like the crucifix and Christmas.

"Hardcore Canadian multiculturalism is a Tower of Babel" that will inevitably fail in a confusion of cultures, said Jacques Lamothe, a resident of Trois-Rivières.

Lamothe spoke in French, but pronounced "Canadian" disdainfully in English.

"The problem is hardcore intransigent multiculturalism that Canadians are trying to apply here in Quebec. It won't work. We have our own model," Lamothe concluded.

Quebec's controversy over cultural compromise may have reached a peak in January when Hérouxville, about 50 kilometres north of Trois-Rivières, adopted its code.

The small town is overwhelmingly white and francophone, like most of this region.

While some speakers at the commission supported Hérouxville, others roundly denounced the town for backward ideas and giving them a bad name.

"I am ashamed to be a Quebecer sometimes, like when I hear idiocies like those coming from Hérouxville," said Jean-Pierre Trépanier.

"Ignorance and fear produce xenophobia and racism, and the ideas of the extreme right."

Heartfelt debate

The hearings headed by philosopher Charles Taylor and sociologist Gérard Bouchard have provided a nightly televised carnival of heartfelt debate spiced with open-microphone intolerance.

At Tuesday's hearing, Yves Rocheleau described accommodating prayer, the kirpan and kosher food as "quite accessory to the essential survival of Quebec culture."

"Real diversity, it's the Quebec people who carry it," he said. "The only francophone people in America among 400 million anglophones, that's the real cultural diversity that must be respected and protected."

Denise Béland, a middle-aged woman, gave a two-minute history capsule, recounting how Quebec women were forced to wear hats and veils in church until the middle of the last century.

She recalled the struggle of Quebec women for the right to vote and exercise control over their reproductive lives.

Her grandmother had 20 children, she noted. Women in the province have come a long way, she concluded.

"I'm not racist, but when I see other ethnic groups using religion to impose certain standards, I get scared," Béland said.

"They don't know the long road we had to gain these rights in Quebec."

Béland was among 200 people who jammed a hotel conference room, waiting for a turn to speak.

Gaétan Bouchard, a Métis, said "I don't know exactly how we all got here, but we have the obligation to live together."

Bouchard described how, growing up, people told him he wasn't such a "savage" because he looked more white than native.

"If we are against reasonable accommodation, foreigners are not going to want to come here, there will be economic consequences and we will be in deep shit," he added.

Hérouxville resolution resonates

Premier Jean Charest called the commission to study the accommodation of minorities earlier this year.

It was the same winter Hérouxville took action with a resolution that made headlines.

The Hérouxville declaration, which has no legal weight, said face coverings should only be worn during Halloween, and women should be allowed to dance and own property.

A Hérouxville town councillor is expected to defend the town's resolution during Wednesday hearings.

Like the rest of Canada, which has wrestled with issues like allowing men to wear turbans while serving in the RCMP, occasional accommodation controversies have popped up for years in Quebec.

The issue suddenly raged to the forefront in the past year when Quebec newspapers revelled in weekly reports of minorities asking for special services.

Action Démocratique du Québec Leader Mario Dumont also adopted the issue in an election earlier this year to cast himself as the protector of Quebec culture.