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* note: I will focus only on Quebec in this topic because I don't know what goes on in other provinces *

 

Oh dear

 

If there's something that you can use to sell the news in Quebec it's what they call reasonable accommodations. Basically, back in the 60's, Quebec decided that no religious symbols would exist in public places and religious people would not control politics, schools and whatnot. Furthermore, given the current Charter of Rights and Freedoms, immigrants and non catholic Quebecers have freedom of religion. So now there are a bunch of changes that have been made in order to accommodate other religions. The government even paid (with our taxes) a commission that goes around the province to listen to (mostly) racist and xenophobic idiots complain against immigrants (because it seems that people here think that only immigrants are non-catholic).

 

Now Quebecers don't want religion or religious symbols in public places yet they refuse to take a crucifix out of the parliament and they want to keep their religious holidays.

 

Also, even amongst non-catholic people and immigrants, most of them just want to integrate Quebec and they're not even interested in reasonable accommodations. But the whole debate (that the media is creating) is creating a lot of racism and xenophobia.

 

Given that the official language in Quebec is French, this is another problem. Because immigrants come to Canada not Quebec and so they don't want to learn French, they can learn English if they don't already know it.

 

There's even a survey called "If You Had To Decide" on an official government website:

http://www.accommodements.qc.ca/Sondage/survey.asp

 

these are basically the kind of questions this whole debate is creating.

 

So what do you guys think of this whole debate?

 

Personally, I'm sort of tired of it. I agree that religion has nothing to do in public places, governmental buildings, political decisions, education, etc. Yet religions should not be ignored because they are the root of most of human history. They're replacing religious classes next year in school for a religion history class which I completely agree with. So basically, I think religion is way too personal to be expressed in public places and therefore no praying in schools or whatever. That way, the impact of having different religions on one territory would be lessen if not eliminated. As far as language is concerned, people living in Quebec should know a basic amount of French just to respect the population. But the fuss that Quebecers make with this shouldn't be so big because most of them don't even speak French properly themselves.

 

I think that there should be (real) French classes for immigrants who want to live here so their kids don't suffer from not knowing how to speak it. Because in Quebec, there's a law that says you can't send you kid to English school if you're not a primarily English speaker (it's more complicated than that but that's about it). So a non-French speaking kid still has to go to French schools.

 

I think this whole thing is sad because different cultures should not create hate, they should be embraced and explored. Because people are what they are because of their cultural and religious history. That's why they should all get along and stop thinking their religion or culture is better than another. Of course, Canadians and Quebecers should stand so that their own culture doesn't get crushed by another. But who can blame an immigrant or non-catholic for asking to have a religious holiday or for asking for a place to pray, etc. If governments say "no" then that's it. It shouldn't create a huge buzz.

 

Anyhow this topic is a bit confusing I know but the situation is complicated and confusing itself. So sorry ;)

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People should be allowed to pray in schools, adults just shouldn't have any say one way or the other in what the kids do.

 

As for the reasonable accommodation debate, no, as far as I know it doesn't exist in the rest of Canada. It exists in Quebec because the need to assimilate immigrants (to the French-speaking culture) is seen as greater. But you're right, the talk of "are we being too accommodating?" comes from and promotes racism and xenophobia.

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People should be allowed to pray in schools

 

It depends to what extent that goes. For instance, a student should not be allowed to skip a class for religious reasons. We would end up making different exceptions for different reasons and pretty soon it would become a free for all...

 

adults just shouldn't have any say one way or the other in what the kids do.

 

I don't get what you mean...

 

As for the reasonable accommodation debate, no, as far as I know it doesn't exist in the rest of Canada.  It exists in Quebec because the need to assimilate immigrants (to the French-speaking culture) is seen as greater.  But you're right, the talk of "are we being too accommodating?" comes from and promotes racism and xenophobia.

 

Well Quebecers are paranoid. They seem to fear people who come from other countries because they think they (Quebecers) will get "englished". That's been Quebecers main fear for the better part of 300 years. Unfortunately, the way I see it, now that the English part of Canada is not a danger anymore, they seem to be looking for another source or "danger" to protect themselves from.

 

The whole debate sparks a tremendous amount of racism, intolerance and xenophobia and, although I've never been too fond of the Quebec culture, I've never been more ashamed of being a Quebecer in my life.

 

Yesterday, the opening news on the 10 o'clock news was that a group of 6 Muslim women were photographed in a water park bathing in their clothes because they can't show their bodies to men. Half an hour later, there was talk of the deaths in Afghanistan...

 

This is way overboard... ;)

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