‘Intolerant’ Quebec charter will cause problems: Conseil du Patronat

QUEBEC CITY – Day seven of Quebec’s hearings into the province’s proposed charter of values began with activist and atheist Bill Clennet who defended his use of the kippah.

“I’m wearing it in solidarity with all the people who are victimized by what is being proposed,” he said.

Clennet is better known as the man who was grabbed by the throat by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 1996.

But on Thursday, Clennet was at the National Assembly in Quebec City, telling MNAs that Bill 60 is hypocritical.

It bans Muslim and Jewish signs, he said, while protecting some Catholic symbols as Quebec heritage.

“Why do you see the speck in the eye of your brother and you don’t see the log in your own eye,” Clennet quoted from the Bible.

That’s not all the Minister for Democratic Institutions, Bernard Drainville, heard on Thursday.

The Conseil du Patronat, Quebec’s largest group of employers, also came out swinging against the charter, calling it useless and unhealthy.

“The law will not bring chaos, the chaos is already there,” said Conseil president Yves-Thomas Dorval.

“What the law is bringing is other issues that will not help Quebec to recover and find the best solution to the economical situation and threat that we are facing already.”

Drainville was not impressed.

“Fear campaigns no longer work,” he responded, refuting allegations the charter would create recruiting and retention problems for employers.

On the contrary, he claimed, it will help businesses hire more immigrants.

“Some of these employers who are hesitant to hire neo-Quebecers because they’re fearful of being faced with religious accommodation requests will be reassured, will have clear rules,” he said.

“I think they’ll be more likely to give a chance to some of these people who are looking for work.”

Dorval was not easily swayed by this line of thinking.

“Ninety eight per cent of all employers in Quebec have never had a problem with employees regarding religious accommodation,” he countered.

Drainville said he cannot take the Conseil’s warning seriously, especially considering its opposition to Bill 101 in the 1970s.

“They said it was going to be disastrous for the economy, it was going to cause unemployment and who can seriously say that Bill 101 had a disastrous impact on Quebec?” asked Drainville.

“I think it had a very positive impact on Quebec. I think it created more social cohesion. I think it created social peace and this is precisely what the Charter will achieve.”

This week, researchers from HEC said that Quebec’s standard of living had steadily declined since 1981.

Siding with the Conseil, the opposition party Coalition Avenir Quebec pointed out that Bill 60 doesn’t only cover the public sector; it extends to private companies dealing with the government.

“The PQ is too radical,” said CAQ MNA Nathalie Roy.

“What we say is that we can ban religious signs but only for specific employees of the government, not for everybody like the minister Drainville wants to do.”

Hearings continue next week.