In numerous reports over the last several years, I have commented upon some of the more bizarre education and not-so-education events occurring in this province. While there are many past situations that I can recall, the following one is representative and, as readers may be surprised to know, is still a festering blemish on the social fabric of our tame and civilized society.
The Margarine War
We continue to be enthralled by the on-going legal machinations of the Government (acting on behalf of the politically powerful farmers' unions) and the conglomerate known as Unilever Canada as they dance through an already clogged and overburdened court system. These two behemoths are not struggling over some mighty issue of basic human rights, genetic modifications or even attempting to correct some long-forgotten wrong; rather, at issue is the colour of margarine. As readers may remember, Quebec is the only jurisdiction in North America (maybe even the World) in which specific legislation is in place dictating the colour of margarine or, more correctly, dictating the colour that margarine may not be.
For some reason, lost in time but no doubt tied to pre-NAFTA protectionist polices designed to safe-guard Quebec's dairy industry, provincial laws were enacted so that obviously ignorant consumers would never confuse butter with margarine. Clearly, words and packaging were woefully insufficient modes of communication and so a specific colour range was allocated to butter thus forcing margarine to adopt hues that might appear less appetizing to the eye. In any case, a multi-national upstart, unwilling to accept this unique aspect of Quebec's cultural history, is challenging this very fundamental thread of Quebec's cultural and social fabric in court.
While initial rulings have tended to favour the colour ban, in very narrowly defined legalize, even the courts have noted that product colour should be left up to the good sense of consumers and dictated by the free-market system. The Government, on the one hand, seems entrenched in its wishes to defend the colour of butter to the death and Unilever Canada, equally strident, decries the additional costs associated with producing off-colour margarine just for the Quebec market. Undaunted, one can only imagine the financial sums and people resources that both parties have squandered in what some have cynically termed the 'Margarine War'.
The Kirpan Issue
The amusement associated with this butter and margarine dog-fight pales in comparison with a relatively recent and far more serious social confrontation. Pitted against each other in a terribly complex and often very personal battle are children, parents, teachers, school boards, lawyers and a whole host of civil libertarians and religious leaders. Satirically dubbed the 'Kirpan Issue', this strife has the potential to truly impact the social order.
As background, two important points must be made. Firstly, the "Kirpan" is a blunt, short-bladed symbolic knife or dagger that baptized Sikhs wear sheathed and hidden under their clothing. It is a religious symbol that rests beside the body in remembrance and defense of the faith. Secondly, other Canadian provinces (who have larger and more established Sikh communities); such as, Ontario and Alberta, have already established very recent jurisprudence which recognizes the significance of the Kirpan, authenticates its centralizing place in the religion of this Canadian community, and acknowledges the Kirpan's presence on the person in all educational settings.
Well, without boring readers with the details of numerous court sessions, angry confrontations outside of schools, shouting matches during school board meetings, parental boycotts of school activities, and the terrible sight of elementary kids taunting other elementary kids, it is safe to say that the insults and epitaphs tossed about were a cauldron of hate. Notwithstanding that clear evidence presented in court indicated that the Kirpan has never ever been used as a weapon in any school in Canada, the French-language Marguerite Bourgeoys School Board, decrying a shortage of funds for supplies and school related activities, found the sums to take this case in an expatiated manner to the courts.
Refusing to accept the religious significance of the Kirpan and downplaying the practical realities and jurisprudence from other areas of the Country, the whole notion of "safety" and the assumption that the Kirpan was a readily available sharpened bayonet played itself out against World events. Hidden just beneath the surface, many parents and school board administrators commented upon the need to protect Quebec's unique social character. While never explicitly spelled out, such euphemisms generally indicate a desire to have one and all speak the same language, hold the same values, worship in a like way, and follow approved orthodoxy. Very rarely in this simmering debate were the voices of tolerance and inclusion heard.
In a nut shell, the school board, apparently with much vocal parental support, wanted the pupil suspended from school as long as he insisted on wearing the Kirpan. His family, also with support, decried such an infringement on personal religious expression.
Whatever the increasingly entrenched and strident positions, this twelve year old grade six boy was spat upon and verbally abused as he attempted to attend school. Visions of police escorts, fist weaving parents, and taunting classmates filled the evening television news. Ever pious school board officials trumpeted the need for safe schools and attempted to justify their actions as the need for the many to be secure from the misguided few.
Underlying this whole disgraceful episode, which spanned many weeks, was the silence of the Provincial Government. Instead of being pro-active and swiftly moving to act in a conciliatory manner, the hands-off approach adopted by the provincial authorities permitted unfettered local indignation to grow beyond all reasonable points of debate. When the courts finally imposed a compromise and the boy returned to school (and can one imagine the environment that welcomed him?) to finish the last few weeks before the end of the school year, a false calm descended.
Recognizing that the court ruling permitting the wearing of the Kirpan applied only to the boy's current elementary school, the school board immediately announced that they were headed back to court so as to attempt to overturn the decision before the boy could attend the first year of high school. In a final twist of irony, even as the family announced that the "Kirpan Boy" would attend a private English school the following year, the school board announced that it had a moral obligation to continue the court case so that future generations of students would feel safe in their classes.
Citizenship Education
The Quebec Education Program is the much touted reform heralded by unabashedly enthusiastic officials as being the greatest curriculum innovation in decades. As well as pronouncements regarding life-long learning, academic domains, and cross-curricular competencies, this program is supposed to carry a compulsory "citizenship education" component through every level in the system from grade one up to and including grade 11.
It is important to note that the one element of the QEP that is proving to be problematic is this singular topic. Notwithstanding the best of intentions, at both the elementary and secondary levels, the developing program is terribly sparse regarding exactly what is meant by citizenship education. Reams of material and pedagogical suggestions are expounded for the languages (first and second), history, mathematics, the sciences, the arts and every other component of the total curriculum. Standing out in stark contrast by its absence, is any serious attempt to deal with this illusive curriculum demand.
Clearly, there are difficulties with this ethereal notion that has been defined as citizenship education. Even at the elementary levels, the curriculum planners and ministry functionaries seem bereft of any overarching notions that might allow elementary pupils to begin to deal with this topic. For adolescents, the need for serious study in this realm is perhaps even more essential and yet, again, the emerging secondary curriculum documents give short shrift to the topic.
There is no question that students at every level in Quebec need to deal with complex, current and practical societal issues. Questions of religious privilege, linguistic freedoms, individual as well as collective responsibilities need to be addressed openly and honestly throughout the Quebec public school system. The Margarine War and the Kirpan Issue dramatically illustrate that many of the decision makers in this province are still operating within a somewhat closed and restrictive nineteenth century mindset and have yet to acknowledge the contemporary realities of this new millennium.