In a somewhat unsurprising move Jean Charest intervened directly in the debate over reasonable accommodation, to salvage the salvageable bits of Quebec's reputation of tolerance and openness. The Bouchard-Taylor talking shop, better defined a circus by now, has been an unfathomable failure, providing a relief valve for many people's repressed bigotry, ignorance and hate of anything that's not like them. If anything, the commission's conclusion should be that the greatest problem aren't the immigrants but some Quebecers' heads.
For the sake of Quebec's reputation and everyone's mental health please pull the plug on that commission right now, or bring it to Montreal and then pull it.
Lashing out at law 195 comes a little late. As Premier he should have condemned such a proposal the very second Pauline Marois pulled it out of her backside. Rather than promoting a culture, this law creates a government-imposed one, with severe punishment (privation of rights) for those who do not accept it. Unless one comes from Cuba or North Korea I think anyone would shiver at the thought of such an aberration.
It sounds like the whole province is going nuts. Charest should know that there's no problem a cup of tea can't solve. However he mostly lashes out at the other parties for "fanning the flames". He's not completely wrong, but the letter becomes just another bit of fire and political machination. It's time to call a tea break in this acrimonious debate. Pull the BT commission, get rid of law 195 and just all shut up for a month, take the time to learn the lessons from this debacle and do some self-analysis. Then start over.
As a responsible Premier, Charest should have done just that. Instead, he produced just another half-baked invitation to be more polite and restrained.
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