March 17, 2014: The Quebec election is all about values

By Michael Regenstreif

In May 2008, less than a year after I moved to Ottawa from Montreal to work at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I attended a talk at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre given by Queen’s University historian Gerald Tulchinsky.

Tulchinsky was here to speak about his then-new book, Canada’s Jews: A People’s Journey, a history of Canada’s Jewish community. At one point in his talk, Tulchinsky was describing the Protestant school system in Quebec in which the vast majority of Montreal’s Jews in the 20th century were educated. He asked if anyone in the audience had been through that system. About two-thirds of us put up our hands.

All that to say that there are many of us in Ottawa’s Jewish community with roots in Quebec. And many of us retain deep ties there. So, we feel like we have a stake in what goes on in Quebec. And, as Jason Moscovitz notes in his Ideas and Impressions column in the space below, the campaign has begun for the Quebec provincial election on April 7.

One of the main issues in this election – I would argue the main issue – is the so-called Charter of Quebec Values proposed by the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ), which seeks to take away the right of public sector workers to wear clothing or obvious symbols of their religion. Under the charter, a Jewish doctor, a Muslim teacher or a Sikh bus driver would be banned from wearing the kippah, hijab or turban they might feel is important to their religious observance. And there are PQ ministers who have said they would like to see private sector companies adopt the charter as well.

In essence, the proposed charter is a decidedly unsubtle message to religious minorities that they are not welcome in mainstream society – at least the society envisioned by the PQ.

That this proposed charter runs contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and to Quebec’s own Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, is of no consequence to the PQ. They want nothing more than to provoke court battles with the federal government as a way of proving the need for separation to their followers.

Yes, this election is very much about values – and it remains to be seen which values Quebecers will choose.