Backwoods Quebecois village by-laws

Alright, this is just ridiculous. I was flipping channels during the Super Bowl (blasphemy, I know!) and decided to check out a bit of Tout le Monde en Parle. It’s a French talk show on Radio Canada on Sunday nights where (occasionally) controversial guests are invited to discuss whatever issues have gotten their shorts in a bunch. It’s hosted and moderated by Guy A Lepage, a fairly well-recognized Quebecois comedian, who is joined by le fou du roi, Dany Turcotte. The role of le fou du roi is essentially comic relief—particularly useful when you’ve got some crackpots on the program. Well, this time around they decided to invite André Drouin, a town councillor of Hérouxville.

It seems that this town is (or at least its municipal representatives are) fed up with accommodating immigrants. Get this—they passed a by-law that specifically forbids the stoning of women?!? Um, isn’t this already covered under, oh I don’t know, MURDER?!?! Was this law really necessary? Who are these people? The population of the village sits at 207! Somehow I don’t think that they’re being overwhelmed by the demands of a great wave of Islamic immigration.

Anyway, this town councillor goes on Tout le Monde en Parle and starts going on about how Charest needs to call a state of cultural emergency and start rescinding cultural and religious compromises that have been put in place to accommodate the religions of immigrants. What a bunch of backwoods hicks! So I guess we can chalk up yet another example for those that love to accuse the Quebecois of being a bunch of racist, intolerant xenophobes, eh? At least Charest has had the good sense to reject the suggestions of these yahoos in Hérouxville. Since this story has already been picked up by some American news providers, I’m sure it’ll be making the rounds soon enough. Til next time…