But look again at the F-35 issue and how easily special interests in Quebec trump both social justice and commonsense. Besides aerospace, Quebec happens also to be rich in Big Pharma companies. Very Big Pharma. So big in fact that it’s got the Bloc playing deadly political games on the AIDS drug issue. As of now, the Bloc intends to offer an amendment to the proposed NDP bill, a sly sunset clause whose effect will be to deter generic drug manufacturers from using the bill at all. Caving in to Big Pharma pressure, the Bloc may actually be prepared to undermine a reformed CAMR, with all that implies for those dying from AIDS in Africa. But they’re doing so in a slippery way so they’re not seen as being in bed with Mr. Harper and Montreal Liberal Marc Garneau (also on behalf of Montreal’s Big Pharma industry) to frustrate yet another Canadian attempt to provide low costs AIDS drug to Africa. It’s not too late for the Bloc to change its mind. But no one knows what it will take to get them to do so.
Finally, there is the unseemly and very dangerous role of both the Bloc and the PQ in the way they’ve been handling identity questions related to Canadian’s minorities. Social solidarity means welcoming the world to Canada, and indeed Quebec has done that. But the PQ’s stance toward these mostly visible minorities increasingly mirrors that of far-right immigrant-baiting parties in Europe that are threatening democracy and solidarity. Instead of being true to its progressive roots and leading the fight against all forms of racism and discrimination, the PQ is consciously exploiting the irrational paranoia and hysteria of Quebeckers against Orthodox Jews, Muslims (especially the handful of women who wear niqabs), and now Sikhs. It may be legitimate to question why someone who would be barred from boarding a plane wearing a small dagger could wear one in a legislature. But the lust with which the PQ pounced on the issue, and the demagogic way the Bloc picked it up for the House of Commons, is nothing less than creepy.
Once, Canadians outside Quebec and Quebeckers who chose Canada could at least say the two separatist parties shone with a certain integrity. They were honourable men and women. Now we know better, another sad development for a country desperately looking for integrity and honour in its political system.
