WOW!


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/st...ation1029.html

We are living in, ummm, interesting times.
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The new declaration will ask immigrants if they agree with Quebec's common values, including French as an official language, gender equality and the separation of church and state.

I guess that will come as a shock to some who consider the female to be servile and subordinate?

it makes perfect sense to me .. ignorance is no longer an excuse.

perfect common sense and sad this is indeed now mandatory

I guess coz I'm from there, it won't apply to me, incase (not likely) I move from Vancouver!!!

the bit about gender equality should be obligatory coast to coast

It's all common sense. Quebec is unique, and distinct, keep it so, and quit the whining, whiners.

They're preserving their culture, in the face of an invasion of dull homogenized North American mall-life and bland creeping consumerism.

Keep at it, mon amis, et pardon les Franglaises.

R.

Like to see that in UK!

A couple of years ago I bought a book caled "What Canadians Think (About Almost Everything)". It was published by Ipsos Reid and summarised the results of cross-country opinion polls on a wide range of topics (religon, equality, drugs etc). I no longer have the book because it's the kind of thing you only read once, but I remember being quite surprised by some of the polls.

Anyone who thinks that Quebec is full of sexist, racist, gay-bashing rednecks who spend half their lives at Mass would be in for one hell of a shock. If I recall correctly, it came out as the most liberal and egalitarian province in the country almost every time.

Here's a curious one. Guess in which province there is the strongest support for legalising pot? Your first guess would be wrong.

The separation of church and state is a pillar of modern-day Quebec and people wanting to migrate here had better get used to it. There are very many Quebeckers alive today that remember when the separation did not exist and I suspect for most the memory is not a fond one. It is no coincidence that Quebec has Canada's highest rate of belief in God and the lowest rate of church attendance.

To go off at a slight tangent, I'd like an opinion from the longer-established Quebec Brits (or at least, those who speak better Quebecois than I do). Souvette tells me that Quebec humour, particularly the satirical stuff, like Infoman, is much closer to Brit humour than is anglo-Canadian humour. Is that the case?

I'm not too sure about this, but I've found in some ways that Québec humour is closer to English humour than French or Belgian humour. I'm not sure if it's closer than the rest of Canada. Québecers are, in any case, very very different from Frenchies and Belgians I find.

One of the things that really surprised me, and may be it oughtn't to have, was how well dressed people are going to work. I expected a greater level of informity, but people dress here more smartly than in Belgium.

As for Charest's new rule - it's just stupid. Frankly, if you're low enough to think that women are second class citizens you are low enough to lie by putting your signature to something that you don't believe in. Oh, and it's conveniently timed just before an election is going to be called in Québec for the "national" assembly.

LOL, "separation of church and state"; hasnt Quebec traditionally been dominated by the catholic church?

It was, as recently as when Souvette was a kid. It ain't now.

As I said in my post: highest proportion of people that believe in God and the lowest proportion that goes to church. The population of QC has to a very large extent told the catholic church precisely where it can go.

I think it was very much the case until the 60s and 70s - if I remember correctly the Catholic church was part of the "problem" of the French speakers not having an equal part of society. In any case, it's much less powerful today, thank God.

Quite. My MIL was thrown out of her congregation and ostracised by many for committing the crime of stopping breeding after three kids. That was in the mid-60s.

Oh my God! That's quite amazing really - Québec's society has come a long way in 30-40 years.