stores because there was no French on them.
As for my characterization of the policies of the PQ as ethnic cleansing. It
fits. The PQ have a long history of racism and anti-Semitism. As recently as
the recent leadership contest in the PC, Yves Michaud made quite a few
anti-Jewish remarks and has remained quite unapologetic about it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1080790.stm
"Mr Michaud, a long-time hardliner who wants to see Quebec separate from
Canada, said ethnic communities in Quebec were intolerant because they vote
against sovereignty.
Yves Michaud says Jewish suffering has been exaggerated
He also characterised members of a leading Jewish organisation, B'nai Brith,
as terrorists and anti-Quebec, and went on to say that Jews think they were
the only ones who have suffered throughout history.
The Quebec National Assembly voted unanimously to condemn the statement.
But the controversy gained momentum when other separatist hardliners, led by
the former premier Jacques Parizeau, backed Mr Michaud.
He argued that the assembly had acted outside its powers in passing the
motion.
Just after losing the independence referendum in 1995 by a narrow margin, Mr
Parizeau gained notoriety by blaming what he described as money and the
ethnic vote for his party's defeat.
Power struggle
On Wednesday, Mr Michaud stood by his comments, saying he had nothing to
apologise for, and called on Mr Bouchard to back down and let him stand in
the election. "
Moreover other PQ officials have stated that their aim is to create a purely
francophone independent country. Without the minority groups or indian
tribes.
That's ethic cleansing by any definition, whether its done by violence or by
legal fiat.
larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dana tierney [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 9:17 AM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: Re: Nice people....
>
>
> Larry,
>
> Actually, I am glad the referendum was defeated as this makes
> the best economic sense for both Quebec and Canada.
> Furthermore I think some of the language laws are rather
> silly, such as requiring French on signs in Chinatown.
>
> However, to describe the PQ's policies as "ethnic cleansing"
> with its overtone of Nazism, Serbia and Rwanda, is extremely
> offensive hyperbole. Let's remember that official policy in
> Canada was to promote the disappearace of the quebecois
> culture and that this continued into the 1960's. This history
> does promote to a certain paranoia, especially given the
> rather large income disparities between let's say the Molson
> family and the average French-Canadian worker.
>
> Having said all that, singling out minorities on the basis of
> language or religion is of course wrong. But it seems that
> Parizeau blamed "money and the ethnic vote" for the dedeat of
> the referendum. That's not exactly a call to genocide,
> especially as I suspect that Westmount did in fact have a
> great deal to do with the referendum's defeat. Furthermore
> the man was forced to resign the next day, so I don't think
> his words have much acceptance even in the PQ.
>
> I am surprised that you are getting so emotional about this.
> What I said was that on the basis of history, culture and
> language, hell yeah, separatism is a good idea. But
> separatism does not make economic sense and it would make
> Canada a divided country. The example of Bangladesh does not
> inspire confidence in the workability of this model.
> Furthermore separation does put people who live in Quebec,
> immigrants is particular, in the position of choosing sides,
> and that is not a healthy thing.
>
> Dana
>
>
> >Dana,
> >
> >Remember the last referendum on the topic was worded by the Parti
> >Quebecois. Not the Canadian Government. Since the PQ is the
> separatist
> >party, you would figure that they would have worded the
> question to get
> >the result that they wanted. Moreover given what Jacques
> Parizeau said
> >after the referendum regarding immigrants and Jews and other
> >minorities, its probably a very good thing that the PQ lost that
> >referendum. I would not have been surprised if they would
> have further
> >increased their efforts at ethnic cleansing if the Yes effort
> >succeeded. Many in the PQ have the same attitudes that Parizeau had
> >regarding the non-francophones.
> >
> >Also only about 58% of the francophone Quebecois voted yes (see
> >http://newsworld.cbc.ca/flashback/1995/quebec3.html). Not exactly a
> >resounding majority. Additionally over 90% of the non francophone
> >Quebecois voted No.
> >
> >As for the PQ being in power, well how many referenda have they had
> >since 1995? They are acting like a general moderate to liberal (for
> >Canada that
> >is) political party now.
> >
> >larry
> >
> >>
>
>
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