Below is the Q & A period with anglophone journalists:
According to Bambi’s non-expert citizen’s opinion, Mr. Legault is an excellent Prime Minister. For instance, he is pragmatic, logical, wise, courageous, and principled… Too bad he is not Canada’s PM ?.
He said that there is no consensus on a definition of the word “systemic”. When a journalist asked him about his own definition of racism, he explained that for him it is simply about a system (of racism).
He recognized that there is racism in Québec, even if most of the people are not racist (common sense for Bambi). He spoke about conditions that are not acceptable like high rates of unemployment in some communities (i.e., blacks). However, for him, there is no “systemic racism” in Québec.
When another journalist tried to link Bill 21 to systemic racism, he replied calmly “no it is not, that’s it, that’s all” (a Québec expression to say: this is what it is, period). Wisely, he even added “secularism is good for everyone, regardless of one’s skin colour or ethnic background“.
As a reminder, Bill 21 is often VERY wrongly/negatively featured in the English media. Same for Québec, historically (one must not forget).
Bill 21 is simply about the state’s secularism, namely that representatives of the government in positions of power will not be explicitly wearing any religious symbol when they are on duty (e.g., judges, crown prosecutors, teachers in the public sector, etc.). It is a choice that the population of Québec has clearly made when they elected their current government to power, with a majority (it was part of the platform of the CAQ party).
It is a moderate bill, compared to other countries with similar bills.
It is a bill that came after a decade of a public debate on “reasonable accommodations”. It is a bill that respects the history and values of Québeckers.
In other terms, it is simply a bill with a different cultural approach to secularism.
For Bambi, this bill is like Bill 101 about the French language as Québec’s official language.
It is a bill made by Québec and meant for Québec.
Long life to Québec, to its civilization, and own values.
To conclude this post, here are some earlier posts of Bambi about Bill 21:
