Un grand pas vers l’égalité homme-femme | Le Devoir

2014/02/03 Leave a comment

Former Supreme Court judge Claire L’Heureux-Dubé supports the Charter, another reflection of how embedded the opposition to any forms of religious expression, given the history of Catholic domination of Quebec and the transformation into a largely secular society in the 60s:

Dénonçant les « diktats de la religion », Mme L’Heureux-Dubé tentera de dissuader les élus d’opposition de se rallier à la position défendue par le Barreau du Québec et la Commission des droits de la personne. À ses yeux, ces deux organismes proposent à l’État de confier un « choix de société » au « gouvernement des tribunaux ». « Le rôle des tribunaux n’est pas de gouverner ni d’entraver les choix démocratiques que se donne une société, mais plutôt de réprimer les abus, s’il y en a, au regard des droits fondamentaux que protègent les chartes », affirme Mme L’Heureux-Dubé qui a siégé au plus haut tribunal du pays de 1987 à 2002.

Un grand pas vers l’égalité homme-femme | Le Devoir.

Somewhat amusing that the leaders of Quebec’s student movement against tuition increases, that led to widespread protest again the Charest government in 2012, now say youth are intimidated by the Charter debate. Come on, this is more of a choice! If I recall the polls correctly, young Quebecers (like all young Canadians) are more relaxed about multiculturalism/interculturalism than older citizens.

«Depuis le début, il y a eu toute une série de sorties publiques, comme celles de Guy Rocher et Jeannette Bertrand. Et ils ont tout à fait le droit. Mais ce sont des gens d’un certain âge qui ont utilisé leur expérience pour donner beaucoup de crédibilité à leurs propos et pour donner l’impression aux jeunes que leur opinion l’était moins», fait remarquer Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, ex-porte-parole de la CLASSE. «C’est un sophisme d’autorité».

Cet automne, lors de son intervention sur la charte au Mégaphone de l’ONF, au Quartier des spectacles, des baby-boomers lui avaient fait la morale lors de la période de discussion. «Je m’étais fait dire “nous les baby-boomers, on a vécu la Révolution tranquille, on sait de quoi on parle et vous, vous n’êtes pas au courant. Vous devez nous écouter.”», note M. Nadeau-Dubois. «Les jeunes sont intimidés. Personne n’essaie de les faire taire volontairement, mais c’est l’impression que ça donne. Et ce n’est pas très invitant.»

Charte de la laïcité : les jeunes intimidés par le débat

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

Opinion: Reconciling injustices in a pluralistic Canada

2014/02/03 1 Comment

Interesting commentary by Mark Winston of Simon Fraser’s Centre for Dialogue. Somewhat annoying that no mention of the federal government’s historical recognition program (and Chinese Head Tax program), which were aimed at allowing communities to share their stories and experiences, and have their experiences acknowledged:

What is clear is that the residual impacts of cultural, social, legal and economic injustice are perpetrated for many generations through the trauma of parents passed on to their children. To heal, communities are looking for genuine acknowledgment of what happened or continues to happen, as well as accountability from government, whose motives can appear cynical and suspect.

One theme emerged from all communities: government must uncouple reconciliation from electoral and political cycles, perhaps establishing an independent body to deal with resolving historical injustices.

The unique injustice perpetrated against Canada’s Aboriginal communities stands out as a particularly stark example of bias, due to the unique and extensive destruction of culture and community fabric among indigenous peoples….

How will we know reconciliation has been achieved? A quote from the South African Truth and Reconciliation process provided an answer: “When the past no longer invades the present but informs the future.”

Opinion: Reconciling injustices in a pluralistic Canada.

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Op-Ed: The Muslim convert’s path

2014/02/03 Leave a comment

An interesting account of the conversion process by Stephane Pressault a student at St. Paul’s University. Fairly high level and philosophical; not sure how real world it is but worth reading.

When I meet a new convert, I always make sure to ask them where their ancestors are from. This questions often throws people back as if being Canadian contradicts being Muslim. I seek to change that. Becoming Muslim, for a Canadian convert, means understanding how Islam will shape one’s Canadian identity. Only institutionalized tarbiyah, through traditional scholarship that trains culturally relevant leaders and through artisanship and craftsmanship, that revives excellency in work can a convert embody excellence in their Islam.

Op-Ed: The convert’s path.

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On Exile from “The Neighbour” – Short Story by Goli Taraghi

2014/02/01 Leave a comment

A collection of her short stories was given to us over the holidays by a family friend. She captures very well the experiences of many before and after the Iranian Revolution, but my favourite paragraph is the following on exile:

All of us – my children, the friends who occasionally visit us, I myself – are scared stiff of the downstairs neighbour. Our lives as foreigners in Paris are full of hidden anxieties. To begin with, we feel guilty for having taken up space that rightfully belongs to the natives, yet hidden beneath our apologetic smiles and submissiveness lurks an anger that stings and lies in wait for revenge. Humiliated, we painfully swallow our pride – a pride that has been instilled in us over the past two and a half millennia, a confidence that we descendants of Cyrus the Great, even in defeat and despair, are superior to the rest of the world (why, God only knows), and if we have fallen on hard times if little is left of our past glory and splendour, you Western exploiters are too blame.

While different exile communities may describe their experience somewhat differently, there are some universal experiences of exiles, and coming to terms of their fate. My mother’s family left Russia shortly after the 1917 revolution, and likely had some comparable feelings (although they likely did not blame Westerners!).

Book review: ‘The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons,’ by Goli Taraghi

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Study dispels stereotypes about Ontario women who wear niqabs

2014/02/01 2 Comments

Interesting. I would also be interested in knowing how many were converts versus born Muslim:

A majority of the women who participated said they began wearing the veil after turning 18, and most foreign-born respondents said they only began wearing the niqab after arriving in Canada.

The study suggests concerns expressed by pundits that niqab wearers will use the concealing nature of the garb to avoid being photographed for identification or security purposes, such as boarding a flight at an airport, are unfounded.

“All those interviewed said they understood there were instances where they would be required to show their faces,” the authors wrote. Many interviewees indicated strongly that they would never refuse to reveal their face in an instance requiring they be identified.

The study indicates most women who wear the niqab made the decision based on a personal belief, rather than pressure from spouses or relatives.

“We thought it would be political, but it was more for them an expression of their spirituality or their journey, which we did not think we would hear,” Hogben said.

In fact, several respondents indicated they had been pressured by spouses to stop wearing the veil.

There is an ongoing debate among Muslim scholars as to whether the niqab is obligatory in Islam. The study chose to avoid the “religious or theological basis for the practice itself.”

Study dispels stereotypes about Ontario women who wear niqabs.

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Charte: «un débat malsain et nuisible», selon le patronat | Charte de la laïcité

2014/02/01 Leave a comment

Not too surprising, the views of the main business association in Quebec on the Charter:

«En créant un climat d\’intolérance et de division au sein de la société québécoise, le projet de loi engendre un débat malsain et nuisible à la prospérité du Québec.»

Charte: «un débat malsain et nuisible», selon le patronat | Denis Lessard | Charte de la laïcité.

Christian Rioux, from the secular perspective in Le Devoir, describes well the context for opposition to religious symbols in Quebec, even if I think he is too influenced by the wish for Cartesian clarity and absolutism, and the “old demons of Quebec”. :

Ce faisant, on aura fait triompher la religion des droits. Mais on aura aussi détruit une certaine idée de l’État. Car, si l’on ne peut imposer des exigences plus élevées à un fonctionnaire qu’à un employé de McDo, c’est que l’État est devenu un employeur comme un autre. Or, la laïcité (qui concerne l’État et l’État seulement) est inséparable d’une conception républicaine de ce même État. Ce n’est pas un hasard si le débat actuel remue tant d’émotion. Il vient réveiller tous les vieux démons québécois : du rapport atavique que nous avons entretenu historiquement avec la religion à l’idée que l’État québécois n’est pas qu’une vague administration provinciale, mais le représentant d’une idée qui nous dépasse tous et qui s’appellerait le peuple québécois.

Devoir de réserve

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Reviving the Islamic Spirit 2013: A Call to Spiritual Activism

2014/02/01 Leave a comment

An example of engaged Muslim Canadian youth, emphasizing the spiritual role as well as the broader role for social change:

My take away from this conference was strong yet simple: the spiritual activism our society needs must be a responsibility we as Muslims undertake with pride. In our daily fight against extremism, we must reconstitute the balance of knowledge and revive the spiritual dimension of the human psyche. It is not enough to struggle for our own cause, but to struggle for the greater good of humanity. We are all vital organs in the body that composes mankind.

RIS 2013 was a call not only for social change, but the inward peace that is attained when a life is dedicated to the service of others. As Muslim youth, we are the foundation of the cultural bridges we so desperately need to build. So volunteer with your local charities, get involved with the office of your Member of Parliament, and practice your democratic right to speak against social injustices and fight for equal rights and opportunities for all.

As the Prophet (PBUH) said,  “The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr”. So write, contribute to the dialogue, be the catalyst for change and the medium for the success of interfaith collaboration – all of which will lead to the transformation of our global community into a global family.

RIS 2013: A Call to Spiritual Activism.

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Chris Selley: Canada’s secret ‘values’ debate | National Post

2014/01/31 Leave a comment

Chris Selley of the National Post on treatment of evangelicals versus other religions. While some of his points are valid, he may be going to far in stressing expression of religious freedom compared to other rights. My general test is to substitute other religions, race, or orientation and see how it lands, remembering that the effect on others is where the balance of rights question arises.

But I agree with him that open discussion is better than hiding things. Far better that Professor Grayson of York U went public over the accommodation issue to help society discuss the “reasonable” in reasonable accommodation:

Yet in the Rest of Canada, politicians aren’t advocating legal changes. They seem to have started simply proclaiming certain opinions unpresentable, or even un-Canadian — ”This is Canada, pure and simple,” a scandalized Liberal MP Judy Sgro said of York’s position — while ignoring the obvious ramifications of their positions were they consistently applied. Worse, they’re not consistently applying them and they show no signs of starting. As ever, many on the Canadian centre-left seem to be indulging a paranoid obsession with evangelicals, and it’s just as discreditable as Quebec politicians’ paranoid obsession with Muslims. Ugly as it is, at least Quebec’s “values” debate is playing out in the light of day.

Chris Selley: Canada’s secret ‘values’ debate | National Post.

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Charte de la laïcité – Quelques suites d’un mémoire sur la laïcité | Le Devoir

2014/01/31 Leave a comment

Guy Rocher replies to the criticism of Georges Leroux et Jocelyn Maclure on his submission to the Charter hearings, maintaining his strict approach to secularism (but not wishing to fire existing employees). Again, confusing the neutrality of government with the religious expression of individual employees:

Puisque le point de départ de notre réflexion collective sur la neutralité fut le constat du pluralisme, nous pouvons sans doute affirmer que celui-ci continuera, et qu’il est bien probable que nous assisterons à une diversification religieuse encore plus marquée. Le principe de « l’égalité des droits » entre les « clientèles » devra donc s’appliquer plus que jamais.

Et je ne me crois pas en contradiction avec ma position, en tant que sociologue, en proposant que l’on accepte que ceux et celles qui portent déjà des signes ostentatoires de leurs convictions religieuses continuent à le faire tant qu’ils et elles sont à l’emploi des institutions publiques. Il s’agit là d’une question de justice pour ces institutions qui les ont employé(e)s et surtout pour ces personnes elles-mêmes.

La charte de la laïcité est pour demain, et non pour hier.

Charte de la laïcité – Quelques suites d’un mémoire sur la laïcité | Le Devoir.

And the usual political back and forth:

Lisée accuse Couillard de ne pas comprendre le Québec

Même avec la charte, le tchador sera autorisé à l’université, admet Drainville

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Opposing the campaign to exclude Israelis from the global academic community | Engage

2014/01/31 Leave a comment

An interesting piece by David Hirsh (see Engage | The anti-racist campaign against antisemitism) , with a left-wing perspective, on how to oppose the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign against Israel, and linking this to other forms of hate and racism. A reminder that there us a plurality of approaches against antisemitism:

  • “The conflict on our campuses seems to be between wavers of the Israeli flag and wavers of the Palestinian flag.  We refuse to pick up one or the other flag and to hope for its victory; better to embrace a politics of reconciliation
  • We need to have a conversation about what solidarity is….
  • Academic freedom and democratic norms
  • Consistency
  • Antisemitism.
  • Understanding, analyzing, making arguments, educating….”

The Israeli and Jewish right tends increasingly to embody a politics and a way of thinking which has little in common with our own.  What they say about the roots of the Israel/Palestine conflict, about how to get peace, about how to relate to the boycott, about how to relate to the Palestinian national movement, about how to relate to the Islamists is highly problematic.  Their paradigm and their way of thinking is not likely to be influential amongst academics.

But the Israeli and Jewish right are sometimes quite good at sniffing out antisemitism.  When they are angry and militant against antisemitism – that is when they’re right, it isn’t an indicator that they must have got it wrong.

Just as liberty, freedom, the rule of law, democracy, lesbian and gay rights, womens rights and human rights are values which should not be abandoned by the left, as though they were right wing issues, so the issue of antisemitism should not be abandoned to the right either.

The left cannot be influential amongst Jews if it teaches people to recognise concern for antisemitism and opposition to boycotts of Israel as right wing issues.

The problem with the approach of the right isn’t that their militancy against antisemitism is misplaced – the problem is that they’re not consistent, they’re not antiracist, they’re not for a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine – indeed the problem with the right is similar, in these respects to the problem with the boycotters and the people who think that anti-imperialism is the only important left wing value.

We need a movement and a network to give people good arguments, to build a cosmopolitan anti-nationalist sensibility, to propose genuine solidarity in place of the hollow boycott-version.

Opposing the campaign to exclude Israelis from the global academic community | Engage.

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

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