02 April 2014

Is Canada's multiculturalism in peril?

Canada is widely hailed as a multicultural success state. As the first country to adopt multiculturalism as official policy, and with high rates of integration among immigrant populations, it is often looked at as a model to be followed. Recently, though, the French province of Quebec has dented this global reputation with the introduction of Bill 60, popularly known as the Quebec Charter of Values.

Boasting the notion of "state neutrality" on matters of religion, the charter seeks to limit the wearing of "ostentatious" religious symbols for all state personnel. This would essentially result in a ban on the use of Muslim veils, Sikh turbans, Jewish kippas, and any large Christian crosses, for all public employees, from civil servants to doctors and teachers.

[A COMMENT] Multiculturalism is fine in theory except when confronted with the Islam. At is core Islam is fundamentally illiberal, supremacist in nature and extremely intolerant of minorities, women, and LGBT's when it is in the majority. Time to assert the superiority of Western values even at the expense of 'offending' followers of a primitive set of 7th century Iron Age precepts and make no apologies for doing so. [Al Jazeera] Read more