Yup, I am correct: checked my calendar and, indeed, this IS 2022.
But if you live in Quebec or watch what has been going on there, with widespread public approval, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s the 1950s … or even the 1930s and 1940s.
Two years ago, the Quebec government used closure to curb committee consideration and push through the Legislature Bill 21, barring public employees from wearing religious symbols.
They claimed it just to ensure secularism … but the reality is it BARRED anyone wearing a turban, a hijab (with face visible), or a religious skullcap etc. from ANY PUBLIC jobs … from bus drivers to police officers, nurses or other hospital jobs, court workers, government lawyers, judges or even school teachers.
And that was just the first salvo in the latest generation of Quebec’s attacks, discrimination and isolation of minorities.
In May, the Quebec legislature also passed Bill 96 … severely limiting the rights of English-speaking residents ..not just immigrants, but even those Anglophones whose families have lived there for centuries.
“It limits the use of English in the courts and public services and imposes tougher language requirements on small businesses and municipalities. It also caps the number of students who can attend English-language CEGEPs, which are junior colleges, and increases the number of French courses students at that level must take,” CBC reported.
And it’s getting worse.
Just last month, finally ruling on a complaint filed by a black Montrealer almost two years ago, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ordered a Quebec-based radio program to APOLOGIZE for using the full “N”-word on air.
And not just once.
The CRTC noted the show’s talk show hosts used the “N” word repeatedly in a six-and-a-half minute segment:
“During the discussion, the host and the commentator used the ‘N-word’ four times, three times in French and one time in English,” the majority CRTC ruling stated.
The offence took place during a discussion that included mention of a book written in 1967 by radical separatist Pierre Vallieres entitled “Negres blanc d’Amerique” in French and “White Niggers of America” in English. (Vallieres, a leader in the FLQ, had been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of manslaughter in a terrorist bombing in Montreal in 1966: he was paroled after serving 44 months.)
In my view, using the “N”-word ONCE if it is indeed in the title of a book being discussed is legitimate as an identifier.
But injecting the insulting, demeaning, racist term … FULLY VOICED OUT … four times in a six-and-a-half minute discussion goes beyond the pale and deserved to be condemned.
Now what made the unnecessary, repeated use of this offensive, racist word particularly disgraceful was the broadcast took place on Radio-Canada, the French language version of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)!!!
The federal-government owned and funded oh-so-politically-correct broadcaster! Incroyable!!
“”The Commission considers that [Radio-Canada] did not implement all the necessary measures to mitigate the impact of the N-word on its audience, particularly in the current social context and given its national public broadcaster status,” the ruling said.
The complainant, Ricardo Lamour, said the use of the full “N” word embodied “the dehumanization of Black bodies, Black souls, Black voices,”
But adding insult to injury, more than 50 Radio Canada employees and personalities have objected to the CRTC ruling and urged Radio Canada to appeal … saying it “threatens journalistic freedom and independence and “opens the door to the dangers of censorship and self-censorship.”
Well, it certainly does … and should … lead to self-censorship by broadcasters, when it comes to the use of racist, denigrating, despicable words to describe people!
In fact, everywhere in Canada, outside Quebec, that has already been done for many decades.
I doubt those same the French-language broadcasters would be so accepting and understanding if, say, an English language broadcast REPEATEDLY used the words “Peasoup”, “Pepsis” or “Frogs” in referring to Quebecois … saying their use was “journalistically important” to make a point.
Especially if it was done at the English-broadcast CBC !!!
Heads would roll.
But once again, racist references on air … FOUR TIMES in six-and-a-half minutes … is fine in Quebec, IF they’re directed at blacks or other minorities.
Quebec is regressing to the xenophobic bigotry that pervaded its society in the 1930s to 1960s.
Why is this happening?
I believe it’s all part of a slow, but escalating deliberate attempt to encourage minorities to leave the province … and thus enhance the white Francophone nationalist voting pool for another eventual separatist referendum.
Who could blame those so repeatedly targeted, insulted and discriminated against from moving (or have their children leave once their higher education is complete) to Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or even the US? Or think businesses (domestic and foreign) will want to invest/move operations/staff there … instead of Ontario?
The last time this happened, more than a hundred thousand well-educated Quebeckers, including a good number of Francophones, showed their backs to the separatists … and took their savings/investments: the Quebec economy suffered greatly.
Once more, Quebec’s loss will continue to be our gain!
And sadly, the white, the Francophone Quebec public don’t seem to give a damn .. even when the “N”-word gets tossed about publicly on French-language radio.
I can just imagine the outcry that would fill the airwaves and “Letters” columns ANYWHERE in Canada outside Quebec if anyone … especially on the government-funded broadcaster … repeatedly used outrageous name-calling references against black people (or Muslims, Jews, Arabs, Sikhs, First Nations etc.) … even if ostensibly it was done because the word appeared in a book title by some convicted killer.
But four times in six-and-a-half minutes?
So where is Trudeau; where are Conservative Leadership candidates Poilievre and Charest; where is Singh???
Racism is once more running rampant in Quebec … even included in law … and it’s about time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Liberal Ministers, Conservative Leadership candidates Pierre Poilievre, Jean Charest and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stopped being so tepid in their criticism and OPENLY and OUTRIGHTLY CONDEMN and CHALLENGE it.
Does anybody think they would remain so quiet if BC (or Alberta!) passed such discriminatory, hate-filled laws or the offensive “N”-word was used REPEATEDLY on air at the CBC in Ontario, Alberta or BC?
Absolument pas!
Harv Oberfeld
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