Taki Magazine

L’état, c’est relativiste

by Grant Havers on December 16, 2009

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry at a new pedagogy that has been sweeping Canada’s French-speaking province.  The Ministry of Education (and Truth?) in Quebec is finally incurring much deserved flak for imposing a curriculum that aims for an “intercultural Quebec” where everyone lives together in peace and mutual tolerance.  Since September 2008, the Ministry has required that a new curriculum, known as the Éthique et Culture Religieuse (ÉCR), be taught to all students in grades one through twelve, whether they attend private or public schools (or are homeschooled).  Presumably this experiment in “relativism” will foster a more “open” and “democratic” Quebec. 

According to a recent critical assessment of the ÉCR, students are required to learn about and tolerate every single “religious position” imaginable, from pagan animism to witchcraft all the way to the Raëlian cult!  And this “tolerance” is no personal choice. Parents are not allowed to exempt their children from these classes.  Despite the relativistic rhetoric about “open dialogue,” it is highly doubtful that politically incorrect views on identity and sexual freedom are enjoying a hearing. Although teachers are required to encourage dialogue about all cultures and customs, they are also empowered to intervene in class discussions that violate the “dignity” of any oppressed group, and quickly denounce the parties who are guilty of insufficient tolerance. 

Fortunately, les habitants are fighting back.  A coalition of conservative Catholics, nationalists, and concerned parents is demanding the end of the ÉCR’s foray into social engineering.  One can only hope that they succeed, since Quebec’s politics sets the tone for what French separatists there often unkindly call the ROC (the Rest of Canada), a vast region that has been far more accepting of political correctness than la belle province. 

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