There is a small community in Quebec that is attracting a lot of attention around Canada this week.
Hérouxville, a town of around 300 people wants to attract more immigrants so that it can grow. So the town council decided that it would lay out a few ground rules that any immigrant families would get an idea of the local flavour. The rules include the acceptance of the local’s tradition of enjoying a drink and their habit of decorating trees with balls and tinsel at Christmas, and my own favourite "it is forbidden to stone women or burn them with acid".
Predictably enough the multi-culti hordes are up in arms about these rules. They claim it shows intolerance and a lack of understanding of the immigrants. I think it shows that the good people of Hérouxville know what they do and don’t want in their community.
Note that nowhere do they single out any identifiable culture or religion - the rules apply to all current residents of the town, and future immigrants of any background. It is interesting therefore that the only minority group that is protesting to the Quebec Commission for Human Rights are, well, Muslim groups. The Canadian Islamic Congress and Canadian Muslim Forum both are protesting that the rules suggest that "it’s all right to discriminate against Muslims."
Maybe the CIC and CMF should consider that if the rules are too hard to follow that perhaps the problem lays with them and not the town of Hérouxville. If its too hard to live with locals who enjoy a tipple, decorate trees at Christmas and who really would rather play boule than stone women, don’t move there.
