Les Conditions Qui Les Ont Fait Fuir Leur Pays
The title is a phrase taken from the letter to Diane Finley, Canada's minister of Immigration, posted on the website of Herouxville, Quebec. It deals with the code of conduct the town decided to publish on January 27 for the benefit of recent immigrants, (a version of the code is available on the town's website in English) so that "the conditions which made them flee their country" would not be reproduced in Herouxville. The code of conduct, as the English-speaking are calling it, is better referred to as the French-speaking authors of it do. They refer to it as "les normes de vie", the norms of life. They're talking about the norms as we know them here. They're talking about the norms we should all want new arrivals to live by. There has, however, been a great hue and cry raised about the posting of those norms, so much so that Quebec Premier Jean Charest felt it necessary to launch a formal government commission last week to investigate.
There are much, much better ways to use the work time of those who will be involved in that commission. They will be wasting it while they "investigate" the necessary refusal to allow any immigrant to recreate the conditions s/he left behind when they left their country of origin.
Who would deny that there are already established, peaceful norms of life here in Canada? Would anyone deny that burning women with acid or stoning them to death are not among those norms? Why would anyone argue the fact that a person who comes from a part of the world where such behaviour is accepted needs to be informed that we will not tolerate such conduct in Canada?
One of the norms of life in Canada posted by Herouxville included the ability of female officers to arrest male suspects. Apparently this has been an issue for some men who feel it is beneath their dignity to have a female officer reading them their rights. Because they think they are superior to the distaff side of the population simply by virtue of what dangles between their legs, they are getting their vas deferens all tied up in a knot by having to cooperate with a female officer. They expect the police to play nice and bring a male officer around just for them.
Let's try a little something here, shall we? I want you to picture, just for a moment, one of us heading off to the country of origin of one of those sensitive suspects. Imagine us waving around a picture of the prophet, first of all. Then visualize us taking out a black marker and using it to blacken the holy one's front teeth and add a cartoon moustache. Now see if you can manage to picture the local constabulary arriving and inquiring solicitously of us which gender we would prefer to be beheaded by. I can't see it. Can you?
When Canadians travel to any of the countries of origin of the immigrants coming here, we are expected to conform to their norms of life. A Canadian woman would be taking her life into her hands to wear a midriff-baring outfit in some of those countries, but we are expected to say not a single word in protest when immigrant women in Canada are forced to continue wearing restrictive clothing based on the misogynist preaching of the supposed inferiority of the gender.
Why are there so many voices being raised in outcry against little Herouxville and their norms of life? What is wrong with their wanting to limit the accommodations made for minorities when the minorities they are addressing are those who would limit the freedom of us all if they were allowed a free rein?
The writers of the Herouxville code named no names, yet the Canadian Muslim Forum and the Canadian Islamic Congress have both taken it upon themselves to denounce the code as "deliberate hatemongering". Methinks that each doth protest too much. It's as though they interpret every word as aimed directly at them. Why? If they are part of any group, religious or otherwise, that accepts the stoning of women, then they need to admit they are part of hatemongering themselves. If they are not part of such a backward group, why would they want to align themselves with one in any way?
What the people in Herouxville did was only what any town or country anywhere in the world is viewed as having the right to do. I think Herouxville has it exactly right when they tell prospective citizens of their town that they can not expect to recreate the conditions they left behind. This is Canada. Period. We are not the country they left. If they are desperate to recreate it, they should stop wasting their time, and simply go back whence they came. If they chose to come here, it must have been because they looked for conditions to be better here. The conditions they view as better are the ones that specify we are all equal. There is no government sanctioning of the supposed inferiority of any group here, or of either gender.
I don't view my country through rose-coloured glasses. I know we fall short of the mark in many ways, but overall we are miles ahead of many of the countries those who complain about Herouxville's code left behind. We don't want to take the huge step backward that so many of them would like to see Canadian society take. We need to stop making so much accommodation for minorities that want to drag the rest of back to the dark ages. We need to work for a unified country of citizens who all respect the rights of each other, male and female, as we have already detailed in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
To all those stirring up such a storm in a teacup over the code of conduct, I would say; if the shoe fits, wear it folks. Otherwise, get over it. Herouxville did nothing wrong.
There are much, much better ways to use the work time of those who will be involved in that commission. They will be wasting it while they "investigate" the necessary refusal to allow any immigrant to recreate the conditions s/he left behind when they left their country of origin.
Who would deny that there are already established, peaceful norms of life here in Canada? Would anyone deny that burning women with acid or stoning them to death are not among those norms? Why would anyone argue the fact that a person who comes from a part of the world where such behaviour is accepted needs to be informed that we will not tolerate such conduct in Canada?
One of the norms of life in Canada posted by Herouxville included the ability of female officers to arrest male suspects. Apparently this has been an issue for some men who feel it is beneath their dignity to have a female officer reading them their rights. Because they think they are superior to the distaff side of the population simply by virtue of what dangles between their legs, they are getting their vas deferens all tied up in a knot by having to cooperate with a female officer. They expect the police to play nice and bring a male officer around just for them.
Let's try a little something here, shall we? I want you to picture, just for a moment, one of us heading off to the country of origin of one of those sensitive suspects. Imagine us waving around a picture of the prophet, first of all. Then visualize us taking out a black marker and using it to blacken the holy one's front teeth and add a cartoon moustache. Now see if you can manage to picture the local constabulary arriving and inquiring solicitously of us which gender we would prefer to be beheaded by. I can't see it. Can you?
When Canadians travel to any of the countries of origin of the immigrants coming here, we are expected to conform to their norms of life. A Canadian woman would be taking her life into her hands to wear a midriff-baring outfit in some of those countries, but we are expected to say not a single word in protest when immigrant women in Canada are forced to continue wearing restrictive clothing based on the misogynist preaching of the supposed inferiority of the gender.
Why are there so many voices being raised in outcry against little Herouxville and their norms of life? What is wrong with their wanting to limit the accommodations made for minorities when the minorities they are addressing are those who would limit the freedom of us all if they were allowed a free rein?
The writers of the Herouxville code named no names, yet the Canadian Muslim Forum and the Canadian Islamic Congress have both taken it upon themselves to denounce the code as "deliberate hatemongering". Methinks that each doth protest too much. It's as though they interpret every word as aimed directly at them. Why? If they are part of any group, religious or otherwise, that accepts the stoning of women, then they need to admit they are part of hatemongering themselves. If they are not part of such a backward group, why would they want to align themselves with one in any way?
What the people in Herouxville did was only what any town or country anywhere in the world is viewed as having the right to do. I think Herouxville has it exactly right when they tell prospective citizens of their town that they can not expect to recreate the conditions they left behind. This is Canada. Period. We are not the country they left. If they are desperate to recreate it, they should stop wasting their time, and simply go back whence they came. If they chose to come here, it must have been because they looked for conditions to be better here. The conditions they view as better are the ones that specify we are all equal. There is no government sanctioning of the supposed inferiority of any group here, or of either gender.
I don't view my country through rose-coloured glasses. I know we fall short of the mark in many ways, but overall we are miles ahead of many of the countries those who complain about Herouxville's code left behind. We don't want to take the huge step backward that so many of them would like to see Canadian society take. We need to stop making so much accommodation for minorities that want to drag the rest of back to the dark ages. We need to work for a unified country of citizens who all respect the rights of each other, male and female, as we have already detailed in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
To all those stirring up such a storm in a teacup over the code of conduct, I would say; if the shoe fits, wear it folks. Otherwise, get over it. Herouxville did nothing wrong.
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