Charter of Values

 For those that don’t know, Blind Ferret is based in the city of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, in the country of Canada (the cold one on top of America). Despite where work has taken me in my life, Montreal is, always will be, my home.

I love this city, and even though it took us 30 years to pay off our Olympic debt, I’ve always been proud of it.

There never was a doubt that I’d raise my children here.

Today though, for the first time, there was doubt.

Today, the Parti Quebecois, the governing party that is currently leading the province released ‘The Charter of Quebec Values’, whose goal is to limit the wearing of religious symbols by public servants in Quebec.

It is a disgusting piece of legislation (which you can read more about here), all in the name of protecting French values. It’s not enough that we’re punished for speaking English in our home, no, now the PQ government wants to dictate what ‘religious artifacts’ teachers, doctors, daycare workers and any other public employee gets to wear at work.

An employer no longer has to give you a day off for a religious holiday. A Muslim doctor can no longer wear any sort of head covering. A teacher can no longer wear a cross around his neck.

All in the name of protecting Quebec Values: Intolerance, bigotry and hatred.

It’s small minded-ness to a degree I never before thought to see here, in this day, in this age. It frightens me. It enrages me.

To the PQ, to our premier Pauline Marois, allow me to say this clearly and as loudly as I can:

Fuck you. You don’t speak for Quebec. You don’t speak for me.

The Quebec I know, the people from this wonderful place, believe in acceptance. We believe in embracing what we aren’t familiar with. We believe that to learn another’s culture is to grow our own.

We are a beacon for all of those places in the world where people live in fear for their beliefs. Not here, we say. Not in Quebec.

This is a place for everyone, to live together, to work together, to form new bonds, new communities. That is Quebec. And that is what should be written on our license plates. Not ‘I will remember’, but ‘All are Welcome’.

All are welcome.

Maybe we’ve lost our way, and maybe we haven’t spoken up as we should have, because in the end, we allowed this to happen. We allowed this party to warp what it means to be a ‘Quebecer’.

There is no justification for a language police. There is no justification for this so-called ‘Charter of Quebec Values’.

I’m tired of being embarrassed of the home I love so dearly.

It’s time we took it back.

-Because I Can.

Quote of the Day

“The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.”
– Mahatma Ghandi