NatPost: 'Resisting multiculturalism, one packed lunch at a time'

Chris Selley: Resisting multiculturalism, one packed lunch at a time | National Post

Of course it is unfair, on its face, to allow Jews and Muslims to bring a lunch but not everyone else. But just because something is unfair doesn’t mean you should have the time or the inclination to lose your mind about it, and too many Quebec commentators and politicians are miles on the wrong side of that line. Only in Quebec can a sane person get so quickly from an odd policy at an amusement park — or a Sabbath-related parking rule — to fulminating about a poisoned society.

La Ronde is essentially just a sugar shack with roller coasters. Would it be able to throw a Muslim Family Day, as Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California did last year, complete with “a Halal all-you-can-eat Buffet, and an area for daily prayer,” and be left in peace to do so? I wouldn’t bet on it.

So, great, at least the politicians stayed out of it this time. But this controversy has nevertheless enriched the broth of intolerant paranoia simmering on Quebec’s back burner — all the tastier for politicians when next they feel the need to stir the pot. If they’re going to say anything, they should be telling people to calm the hell down. But in Quebec’s provincial politics, that remains a decidedly fringe position.