Town tells immigrants: you can’t burn women alive!
Immigrants wishing to live in the small Canadian
town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them
alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released
by the local council.
Immigrants wishing to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council.
“We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here,” said the declaration, which makes clear women are allowed to drive, vote, dance, write checks, dress how they want, work and own property.
“Therefore we consider it completely outside these norms to … kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc.”
Last year a Montreal gym agreed to install frosted windows after a nearby Hasidic synagogue said it was offended by the sight of adults exercising.
The declaration is part of a wider debate over “reasonable accommodation,” or how far Quebecers should be prepared to change their customs so as not to offend immigrants.
I think that Andre Drouin, the councilor who devised the declaration, said it best: “We invite people from all nationalities, all languages, all sexual orientations, whatever, to come live with us, but we want them to know ahead of time how we live.”
Posted: Wed - January 31, 2007 at 10:32 AM