Our Values (Whether you believe in them or not)
I promised I'd have more on Quebec's new charter of Values, that Thing to which I'm likely to have to adhere in spite of not identifying as a Quebecer and not believing in the values they cite in the way that they expect. The basic, most publicized portions of the charter claim to:
Ensure gender equality and promise that all men and women are going to always be equal under the law (a right which has already been afforded in this country and spelled out very, very clearly). It's kind of hard to argue with this, and I'm okay with redundancy that promises this, but placing it here does two things with which I'm uncomfortable: first, it positions itself such that the statement is addressed only to minorities and suggests that only foreigners from backward places are perpetrating gender discrimination. Second, It sets itself up as a self-congratulatory whitewash of the underlying discriminatory attitudes behind the charter.
Guarantee the religious neutrality of the state (note that by 'state', I mean the Quebec provincial government, which is the highest authority that could possibly be bound by this charter). This too seems innocuous and at a glance suggests the kinds of freedoms granted by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with respect to religion but the truth of it is that that's not what it does. It doesn't promise you that you have a right to any faith you want, it tells you that Quebecers are sensible, secular people, and that we are only going to respect your choice to have a faith so long as you do so quietly and in private. One of the things this portion of the charter bans is the wearing of 'obvious' religious symbols for anybody who works for the government. This bans things like veils or turbans but not jewellery, because most jewellery is not ostentatious. In effect, it sets up a double-standard where devout believers without a standard of dress don't have to give something up, but devout believers that have a standard of dress, do.
My other problem with this neutrality clause is the pursuit itself. It isn't just an abridgement of religious freedom because it is religious, it is a legislation of a religious view. I have been arguing for some time now that the values charter represents the elevation of secularism to a religious ideal by the Charter's advocates, and that the pursuit is one of faith that sets up a state-sanctionned religion that affords preferential treatment to people who belong over people who do not. Promotional material like this: http://www.nosvaleurs.gouv.qc.ca/medias/pdf/Values.pdf (English version) doesn't help.
Require people to show their faces for identification purposes. This one I don't don't have such a big problem with. I think there are circumstances where every person must show their face to identify themselves. I have no objection to this being in private to a member of their same gender if modesty is an issue. I do have a problem with the fact that the addition of this stipulation seems to specifically target one subset of the immigrant population, and not Quebecers as a whole.
You can find more information at: http://www.nosvaleurs.gouv.qc.ca/
What a charter like this says is, "we don't welcome people who do not think like us within our borders. If you do not think like us, we will tolerate you, barely, and we will not take any action to protect your human rights." It says so explicitly and opens the floor for people to make legislation based on it, even if they do so a little at a time. I don't even tolerate this kind behaviour in a fandom on the internet, I would have liked to believe that my province's legislators could do better.
