Friday, February 2, 2007
Reasonable arrangements, that's what everybody is talking about here.
What is it exactly? How much religious/cultural difference do we accept in our society before we say enough is enough?
As a whole, our society is homogeneous. Of course, if you are in Montreal, it is like being in New York. There is also lots of diversity in the Ottawa region and in Sherbrooke. But travel across the rest of the province and you'll see that 96% of us are French-speaking, catholic raised (not practicing) and descendant from the same few hundred men and women that came over to New France in the 17th Century.
When immigrants come to a new land, should they be expected to leave their cultural heritage and religious beliefs on the plane before they set foot in our country?
1) 1990: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP or Mounties) allow Sikhs to wear a turban on the job
2) 2006: The Supreme Court of Canada overturns a school board's decision to ban the Kirpan, a Sikh ceremonial dagger. People say it is a weapon that should not be worn to school because other students are not allowed knives. The Kirpan is worn beneath clothes, sown into a sheath.
3) End of 2006 : a YMCA in the Hassidic area of the city wants to frost the windows because it distracts the Orthodox Jews who walk by it to see women working out.
4) Last week a police officer put up an MP3 titled "Ça commence à faire, là" (It's starting to be enough). Saying things like "If you don't like it here, you can leave" "Stop your musique or you'll have to go home" "we can't cave to every picky demand of every religion". The cop is now under review and an investigation is underway.
5)Last week, Hérouxville, a little town of 1000 people has written a "lifestyle guide" that must be adopted if you live there. You can't cover your face, you can't walk around with a weapon or anything resembling a weapon, no stoning women, a woman cannot be guaranteed a female doctor.
This town has no immigrants. One boy was adopted from Haiti when he was a baby, so he doesn't count since he was raised here.
Two neighbouring towns have since written up a similar code of conduct for their towns.
So, where do we draw the line? What is reasonable, what is not? I think that when it doesn't impact anybody else such as wearing the Kirpan (which is a religious symbol similar to us wearing a cross on a chain), then why make a big deal out of it? When it interferes with your position or job, then it should be banned. For example, wearing a turban rather than the protective gear you need on your head should not be allowed. Furthermore, a police officer is a symbol of neutrality and justice for all, you should not be wearing any symbol, anywhere on your body, that show you may have a penchant for one side or another.
But mostly, I think this debate has stemmed from ignorance. We don't know what a turban stands for, or what a Kirpan is. We (humans) fear what we don't know.
Also, I think that we ourselves are a minority in Canada, being French, and we have a hard time finding our identity in our own society. We lost a lot of our identity in the 1960s as we moved away from religion, lost our relationship with the land. The only thing we have left of our past is our language. And I believe learning about an immigrant's identity is forcing us to look at our own, and our fear is that we have none.
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