Quebec has had a long history of popular uprising against so-called “reasonable accommodation”, special permissions and modifications of public cultural symbols to accommodate immigrants and Quebecers with backgrounds other than french and catholic. Most will remember news stories like Montreal’s YMCA ordeal where Hasidim jews ordered the establishment to tint it’s windows to hide the profane bodies of the athletes training there, or he completely ridiculous security breach where anyone in Canada with a face-covering burqa can vote without showing their face for ID verification.

All these events have triggered a certain animosity against immigrants in general, most particularly against muslims and jews, despite the fact that everybody knows that only a select group of senseless individuals are behind all these frivolous complaints. Countless times I’ve heard friends, relatives and coworkers say the now all too familiar “when in rome” line with a tone reminiscent of outright racism and intolerance.

Ultimately, who is at fault? Most blame the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which according to some is almost TOO tolerant and permissive. Stop blaming the document, it is in fact ourselves that are at fault. The Charter is something that lays down concepts, and if a conflict arises over the application over one of these concepts, a judge has to deliberate over it. The problem with the current state of things is that these issues rarely even get to court, as we immediately submit as soon as we see somebody waving the charter belligerently.

The latest example of this is the feud between the CBSC (Canadian Broadcast Standards Council) and radio stations over the playback of a song containing alleged gay slur, Dire Straights’ Money for Nothing (Youtube). Maurais Live’s interview with Mr. Ronald Cowen (14/01/2011) from the CBSC revealed that a single (yes, that’s ONE, as in 1) person had brought up a complaint against the song, and that from then on the council had come to the decision that the use of the word “faggot”, judged an inappropriate slur that discriminates homosexuals, disqualified the song for radio airing.

One song, a handful of “faggots”, one complaint in a quarter century, and a song is banned from the airwaves. Again, this is a prime example of how soft we Canadians collectively are whenever somebody pulls the intolerance card. Please note that the CBSC is NOT a governmental organisation but rather an “independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) to administer standards established by its members, Canada’s private broadcasters.” When faced to a nonsensical complaint like this one, why is it so hard to have a spine and ignore it in the name of reason? Did the CBSC fear potential legal action? From ONE individual?

I’ve always hated radio edits of anything, even though I understood the the chaste minds of youngsters could be so easily corrupted, I think that our persistence in making “harsh language” a big deal is what makes it so attractive to those people who abuse of such things; it’s the same thing with recreative drugs and alcohol… but that’s a whole other story.

It’s about time we stopped being faggots.