Currents

Canada needs to outlaw the Parti Quebecois.

Yes, that would be bad for political freedom in Quebec and Canada. But the status quo is an even worse infringement on political freedom in that province.

Instead of arguing over health care, housing or the environment - issues that matter to Canadians from coast to coast - Quebecers are invariably forced in provincial elections to vote on the issue of whether they want to stay in the country. It’s going to happen again on March 26.

It’s not that Quebecers don’t get to discuss the issues, but that all of them are ultimately subordinated to national unity/breakup when election time comes around. As such, one never really knows whether their elected officials got reelected (or booted) over financial management or social priorities, or if it was because of their efforts to keep the province in the federation (or vise versa). This is bad for democracy.

Canadian unity politicians who haven’t done anything to change this situation know this, and they must also know that it’s a huge gamble to keep doing nothing. The Liberals may very well with this election, or the next one… but what about the one after, or the one after that? Quebec sovereignty has been an issue for over three centuries, and a serious threat to Canada for over three decades. It’s not going to go away.

A Quebec journalist’s overnight jump into the arms of the Parti Quebecois is feeding speculation about journalistic integrity and media bias.

Whether former Radio-Canada reporter Bernard Drainville was objective in his coverage of Quebec society, or slanted towards separatists, doesn’t really matter in the big picture, though. The main question is why Quebec separatists are allowed to even have political representation in the form of the Bloc and Parti Quebecois.

If home-grown neo-nazis ever magically morphed into a successful mainstream political party representing a white, Anglo-Saxon homeland in rural BC and Alberta, most Canadians outside of that area would rightly condemn it. The international community would have a fit.

Of course, such a scenario is only possible in fiction - and badly written fiction, at that. But in Quebec, a political movement that is essentially run on the same principle of volkish nationalism is seen as politically legitemate. Quebec separatist politicians not only get the respect of their constituents - their paychecks are funded by Canadian taxpayers.