An interesting, though hard to follow, debate is raging in Canada. It began with the small (1,300 inhabitants) town of Hérouxville in Quebec. In January the town council unanimously adopted a "code of societal norms" which was designed to apply to all residents.
The code condemned public stoning of women and genital excision. It said that "men and women have the same value", and confirmed "a woman's right to drive an automobile, vote her conscience, sign cheques, dance, and decide for herself." It also remarked that Quebeckers (sic) are wont to decorate Christmas trees and patronize physicians of either gender, that cuts of pork and beef may very well mingle on the butcher's table, and that girls and boys do swim together. It went on "we consider it unacceptable to stone women to death in the public square, or to burn them alive, disfigure them with acid, or subject them to genital mutilation." It also required residents to expose their faces at all times in public for purposes of identification (All Hallow's Eve excepted).
It is claimed that the Hérouxville Code was inflammatory by design, although it might seem to outsiders to be a laudable but naïve response to a resolution, passed unanimously by Quebec's National Assembly in May 2005, that opposed the creation of Islamic tribunals in the province. This resolution was the product of disputes that had gripped Ontario over the reasonableness of Islamic Sharia law, and made Quebec the first province to expressly forbid it. After the vote, the Premier noted "It's important to send a very clear message that there's one rule of law in Quebec … we are very much an inclusive society, but a society that will govern itself by one set of rules." Quebeckers largely agreed, and 80% of those surveyed in February claimed to support the elimination of religious accommodations across the province.
The Herouxville "norms" raised such a ruckus across the province that Quebec Premier Jean Charest felt obliged to charter a special commission to examine the lengths to which the province ought to "reasonably accommodate" religious minorities. And in a surprising turnaround two weeks later - on the heels of a visit from a Muslim women's delegation, and threats of action by the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canadian Muslim Forum - "genital excision" and "public stoning of women" were dropped from the code for reason of perceived anti-Muslim bias.
As one might expect, the left seized the opportunity to claim that any attempt to impose the rule of law on minorities was inherently racist. One left wing commentator writes "What makes the Hérouxville resolution so repugnant to me is the way in which the murder of women in Muslim theocracies is used to whiteout the murder of women here in Quebec - after all, this is the land of rapist cop Benoit Guay, land of the Polytechnique, and of the 777 women and children who have been murdered since ... not one of whom would have been helped one bit by the men of Herouxville" - as though the fact that some women are murdered by white people makes it OK for everyone else to do it.
The Canadian press have complained about "reasonable accommodations" throughout the province, including prenatal courses forbidden to men, and steps taken to respect the "cultural and religious specificity" of hospital guests. These include allowing male relations to supervise medical examinations of women. Complaints against concessions made to Quebec's Jewish and Sikh communities also feature prominently, but it's clear by the language employed by the Hérouxville councilors, the media and members of the political establishment that demands from Quebec's Muslims are driving the agenda.
The debate was stirred up even more by the news that in February an 11-year-old girl was barred from taking part in a football match because the referee thought the hijab her parents made her wear represented a risk to her own safety.
For an authoritative and well-reasoned explanation of the background to the "reasonable accommodation" debate, click here.
The GOS says: And for a slightly less balanced approach, try this.
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