Dr. Joseph Facal’ s column is entitled “À Ottawa, le délire multiculturaliste ne se repose jamais” [In Ottawa, the multiculturalist delirium never rests]. The federal program it informed us about was found by one of his readers. Thanks to her, and if you wish, you can consult this program here in both English and French: https://shorturl.at/ytVEj. Of note, the “Kosher and Halal Investment Program” is a “$25-million contribution funding program over 2 fiscal years“.
Of course, Canadians are free to eat any diet they wish, whether out of religious beliefs or not. They are also free to follow heath diets, if they like it, or even regularly celebrate the “National Junk Food Day”, which was yesterday by the way (https://tinyurl.com/yc683286 ). This is not the point of Dr. Joseph Facal’s column. His point is simple: why should our tax dollars fund this program? And why did Ottawa create such program in the first place? Why is the government promoting, or interfering, in people’s religious habits? This is a strictly private choice.
Below you can find an English translation of Dr. Joseph Facal’s thoughtful article published yesterday in the Journal de Montréal (https://tinyurl.com/bdzymns5). Thanks to Mr. Google Translate for assisting Bambi in its translation into English for you, dear readers:
“Observant Jews and Muslims follow a few dietary rules dictated by their religious beliefs.
This set of rules is generally referred to as “kosher” for the former and “halal” for the latter, meaning “permitted” because it conforms to religious doctrine.
The most well-known are refusal to eat pork and the consumption of meat from an animal whose slaughter has followed a certain ritual.
No!
Honestly, it doesn’t bother me much, as long as the freedom of others is respected.
After all, there was a time when many Catholics abstained from meat on Fridays and fasted during Lent.
Today, vegetarians and vegans also have eating habits based on beliefs that are not my own, but which are legitimate and respectable.
But should the state encourage and even subsidize the production of meat that conforms to Jewish and Islamic religious precepts?
Should my tax money be used to finance an increase in the production of kosher and halal meat?
In Canada, the answer is apparently yes, since that’s exactly what the federal government is doing.
A reader drew my attention to a very discreet program run by the federal Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food to invest public funds in the production of kosher and halal red meat. You can find here .
The program is aimed at private companies already engaged in this type of production or those wishing to start.
The aim is to help the slaughterhouses concerned “increase their efficiency.”
The funds can be used to purchase the necessary equipment (conveyors, cutting tools, blades, etc.) or to hire a consultant to assist them.
Eligible projects could receive up to $2 million in government assistance per applicant.
Eligible costs would be shared 50-50 between the government and the contractor.
Ottawa will accept applications until September 1, 2026.
The total cost of the program is $25 million, spread over two fiscal years (2025-2026 and 2026-2027).
The problem here, I repeat, is not kosher or halal production or consumption, or consumption based on any other conviction.
Nor, obviously, is the problem with faith and religious practice lived with respect for others.
The problem is the use of your money and mine to encourage ethno-religious communitarianism.
Secularism
But of course, we are in Canada, the only one of these countries to have embraced the multiculturalist doctrine, which today refuses to see its disastrous consequences and to back down.
Mark Carney seems determined in this regard to be the successor to Justin Trudeau, himself a zealous executor of this disastrous ideology long ago introduced by his father.
Meanwhile, Québec, with the half-powers of a half-state, is striving to establish secularism as the philosophy underlying the relationship between the state and its citizens.
Will Québecers finally understand?”.
