Globe editorial: Politics brought Bill 21 into existence. Only politics can take it out - The Globe and Mail | Canada News Media
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Globe editorial: Politics brought Bill 21 into existence. Only politics can take it out – The Globe and Mail

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3 years ago

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People rally against Quebec’s Bill 21, in Chelsea, Que., on Dec. 14, 2021.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

To the extent that the debate over Bill 21 plays out as Quebec vs. Canada, English vs. French, “Quebec’s secular values” vs. “overbearing Canadian multiculturalism,” it benefits the legislation’s supporters, notably the Coalition Avénir government of Premier François Legault. It benefits them enormously.

They, and Bill 21, will be political winners if Quebeckers come to believe that supporting the Act Respecting the Laicity of the State means standing with Quebec, while opposing the law means you’re some kind of a fellow traveller for an outside agenda, one aimed at diminishing North America’s only majority francophone society. In a debate framed as us-versus-them, us wins. Always.

Which is why, though this misguided law deserves to be challenged, and hopefully will be rescinded one day, at least some critics need to take a back seat and put a sock in it. Because they aren’t helping. At all.

Consider Brampton, Ont., whose city council pledged $100,000 to fund the court case against Bill 21. The mayor called on other municipalities to follow suit; councils in Toronto and Calgary quickly signed on.

Within Quebec, this is playing about as well as that time in 1990 when some folks in Brockville, Ont., decided to express their constitutional opinions by going into the street and stomping on a Quebec flag.

The proof of systemic racism is in Quebec Premier François Legault’s own Bill 21

The notwithstanding clause has destabilized Canada’s constitutional order. Here’s how it can be restored

This page has repeatedly called Bill 21 a mistake. It is a solution in search of a problem – was Quebec not a secular society before 2019? The law harms a minority of Quebeckers, solely for the purpose of allowing politicians like Mr. Legault to wrap themselves in the flag.

The law also clearly violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. The Legault government effectively acknowledges as much, which is why it took the extreme step of invoking both charters’s notwithstanding clauses. Bill 21 is largely, perhaps entirely, immune from being overturned by the courts.

That means this is now a fundamentally political debate. Barring a surprise reinterpretation of the notwithstanding clause when the case eventually reaches the Supreme Court, if the law is to be changed, it is the National Assembly that will have the power to do it.

And it’s not like that can’t happen. The law has always had many critics within Quebec. The centrist Quebec Liberal Party didn’t vote for it; neither did the leftist, sovereigntist Québec solidaire. Prior to Bill 21′s passage, Montreal City Council unanimously condemned it.

Nor is it difficult to find critics in the province’s media. In Le Devoir, columnist Michel David described the hiring and forced removal from the classroom of teacher Fatemeh Anvari, solely because she wears a hijab, as, “a way of illustrating all the inequity of this horrible law.” In La Presse, Michel C. Auger asked: “Was Bill 21 about solving a major and urgent problem or was it rather a rather transparent attempt to build up some political capital? Premier François Legault is certainly not helping himself by repeating each time he’s asked about it that Bill 21 is popular.”

And in Le Journal de Montréal, Josée Legault decried how turning this into a Canada-versus-Quebec thing means that critics within the province risk being accused of the “crime of lèse-québécitude.” That’s also why Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says she’s “uncomfortable” with city councils from Ontario and beyond wading waist-deep into the fray.

The rights that Bill 21 undermines are not Canadian rights imposed on Quebec. The Quebec Charter, a quasi-constitutional document, became law a half decade before the Canadian Charter. Among the rights being trampled are those the Quebec National Assembly bound itself to uphold.

Bill 21 is being challenged before the courts, and it should be. But the notwithstanding clause – a kind of constitutional vaccine, which must be renewed every five years – appears to largely inoculate it against the rights enumerated in the Canadian and Quebec charters.

So this battle is largely one that will have to be decided in Quebec, through politics.

And to win a political fight, a contest of persuasion, the best course is to be politic. Politics may be more challenging than the easy social media pleasure of calling out and cancelling, but it is necessary. It always has been. It’s how Canada has survived this long.

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RFK Jr. says Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water. ‘It’s possible,’ Trump says

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15 hours ago

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November 4, 2024

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PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.

Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”

The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”

Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”

The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.

But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.

“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.

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Danielle Smith receives overwhelming support at United Conservative Party convention

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15 hours ago

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November 4, 2024

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Danielle Smith receives overwhelming support at United Conservative Party convention

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America’s Election: What it Means to Canadians

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2 days ago

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November 2, 2024

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Americans and Canadians are cousins that is true. Allies today but long ago people were at loggerheads mostly because of the British Empire and American ambitions.

Canadians appreciate our cousins down south enough to visit them many millions of times over the year. America is Canada’s largest and most important trading partner. As a manufacturer, I can attest to this personally. My American clients have allowed our firm to grow and prosper over the past few decades. There is a problem we have been seeing, a problem where nationalism, both political and economic has been creating a roadblock to our trade relationship.

Both Democrats and Republicans have shown a willingness to play the “buy only American Made product” card, a sounding board for all things isolationist, nationalistic and small-mindedness. We all live on this small planet, and purchase items made from all over the world. Preferences as to what to buy and where it is made are personal choices, never should they become a platform of national pride and thuggery. This has brought fear into the hearts of many Canadians who manufacture for and service the American Economy in some way. This fear will be apparent when the election is over next week.

Canadians are not enemies of America, but allies and friends with a long tradition of supporting our cousins back when bad sh*t happens. We have had enough of the American claim that they want free trade, only to realize that they do so long as it is to their benefit. Tariffs, and undue regulations applied to exporters into America are applied, yet American industry complains when other nations do the very same to them. Seriously! Democrats have said they would place a preference upon doing business with American firms before foreign ones, and Republicans wish to tariff many foreign nations into oblivion. Rhetoric perhaps, but we need to take these threats seriously. As to you the repercussions that will come should America close its doors to us.

Tit for tat neighbors. Tariff for tariff, true selfish competition with no fear of the American Giant. Do you want to build homes in America? Over 33% of all wood comes from Canada. Tit for tat. Canada’s mineral wealth can be sold to others and place preference upon the highest bidder always. You know who will win there don’t you America, the deep-pocketed Chinese.

Reshaping our alliances with others. If America responds as has been threatened, Canadians will find ways to entertain themselves elsewhere. Imagine no Canadian dollars flowing into the Northern States, Florida or California? The Big Apple without its friendly Maple Syrup dip. Canadians will realize just how significant their spending is to America and use it to our benefit, not theirs.

Clearly we will know if you prefer Canadian friendship to Donald Trumps Bravado.

China, Saudi Arabia & Russia are not your friends in America. Canada, Japan, Taiwan the EU and many other nations most definitely are. Stop playing politics, and carry out business in an unethical fashion. Treat allies as they should be treated.

Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
skaszab@yahoo.ca

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