Goodwill towards all…?

We currently have the well-publicized Bouchard-Taylor show touring the province, looking into the plight of immigrants — or the plight of indigenous Québécois, depending on which side of the fence your sympathies happen to fall.

Then we have the provincial government proposing to supply immigrants with guidelines to follow if they are to live here. Add to this the absurd (but hardly surprising) spectacle of French-speaking Santas parading down Ste. Catherine Street, urging merchants to serve customers in French only, and you have a crazy mix of xenophobia and ethnocentric nonsense that goes against everything the holidays stand for.

Goodwill towards all?

Certainly not here this holiday season.

Instead, 'tis the season to air all our racist laundry in public, where the eyes of the world can stare at us with dumbfounded amazement, wondering what all the fuss is about.

The above-mentioned efforts are not all misguided, of course, because every francophone in Canada has the right to be served in French, and we certainly don't want to see women mistreated by men who come from countries where women have been decreed second-class citizens for thousands of years. Such long-established customs cannot be eradicated overnight by a how-to pamphlet issued by the provincial government, which is why the whole 'reasonable accommodation' saga is such an embarrassment.

Elsewhere in Canada, it seems, recent immigrants can live among fifth-generation Canadians with only nominal racial or cultural tensions. If anything, tolerance is celebrated. Last year, the CBC was inspired to produce a popular sitcom on the subject, Little Mosque on the Prairie — admittedly a far cry from M*A*S*H* or Seinfeld, but nevertheless a successful mass-market commodity that reaches the lowest common denominator and tells Canadians that it is perfectly okay for us to laugh at our cultural differences.

Should we blame Québecor and the Journal de Montréal for initially sensationalizing the entire 'reasonable accommodation' debate far out of proportion? Should we vilify members of Movement Montréal français and Impératif français for tainting Christmas by expressing their political views?

Instead of pointing fingers, instead of dialling 9, we should put this all behind us as quickly as possible and look to the future where everyone can live comfortably with each other, regardless of ethnic origin.