Herouxville: the book

"Quebec has always turned to its rural forces for its nourishment, now it turns towards this force for its affirmation."
__ M. Pierre-Yves Pothier.

Such is the greeting awaiting visitors to the public notice page at the official website for the Quebec municipality of Hérouxville. The controversial community that took a stand against the stoning of women earlier this year is poised to enter the news once again, this time through the release of a new book: "The Hérouxville Syndrome, or reasonable accomodations". ["Le Syndrome Hérouxville, ou accomodations raisonnables"]

(Or maybe it is not poised to make much noise at all; the book was released this past August, and is currently available for sale. I had no idea that the book had even been written, having seen no mention of it in the media sources that I frequent. Maybe I need to be paying closer attention..?)

The author is Bernard Thompson, webmaster of Hérouxville's official site. His book is described as "an essay relating the history of the Hérouxville Affair so that the population of Quebec may better understand what happened within our municipality and to thereby rebalance their pendulums accordingly."

A letter written in sympathy to Hérouxville's concerns is included at the bottom of this page, following the news of the book itself. The letter is framed around the motto on Quebec license plates, "Je me souviens", "I remember".... As a catholic, I found this an extremely painful letter to read, but truth is truth whether we like it or not and truth must be sought for progress to be made.

If we are to understand What people believe, we must first understand Why they have come to believe it. It is towards those ends that I have translated a substantial portion of that letter, written by "Grandmother Johanne Chayer". [clarifications and corrections are, as ever, welcome in the comments section; this was a very powerful letter, and I hope its pressing tone survives my humble attempts at translation...]

I would have liked to meet these muslim women at Herouxville to share their culture and their recipes, but mostly to profit from the occasion and explain our motto Je me souviens to them.

I remember that, in my youth, we could not enter the church without a veil or a hat on our heads. In those days, I remember also that it was a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday. During that same decade, I remember how my mother was chased from the Church because after having brought forth four children, she did not want to have any more. I remember that for this reason, the forgiveness of her sins was refused her by the Church unless she gave her body to her husband, with or without pleasure, to risk reaching a dozen.

I remember that she refused to leave the Church like many other women of her generation. I remember that my mother then seperated from my father and that we became a target of disparaging looks and comments in our parish. Nevertheless, I remember that after the separation, we saw the white collar on the night table. Did the priest want to test the means of contraception of the day?

In that same decade I remember that, by turns, my mother and my step-mother saw an urgent operation delayed while waiting for their respective husbands, from whom they had been separated in fact and not legally, to affix their signatures authorizing the surgical operations.

Becoming an adult, I remember that thanks to the pressures of the previous generation, I had access to the first means of contraception that allowed me to restrain the number of my own progeny. I remember also that it was no longer a sin to eat meat on Fridays. I don’t know what became of those who had gone to hell. I hope that they have been repatriated.

Becoming an adult, I remember having worked in environments tradionally reserved for men. I remember frustrations from not having been treated to the same standard as the men in the workplace and especially in life in general.

I remember that after having had a son, I did not want any further children out of fear that these would not be girls, out of solidarity and because the work remaining to be done on attaining equality was so enormous. I remember the efforts that many women had to go to to make themselves heard and to obtain high level administrative posts. I remember the militancy of many women that worked hard as politicians, in the heart of chambers of commerce, in unions, in the Council for the Status for Women, etc, in order to obtain equality in our country.

I remember that it took more than fifty years of collective effort to free ourselves from the grip that the Church and religion had over our lives. I remember that it took more than sixty years (1940 to 2006) to obtain equal pay and that this [struggle] is still not over. My sixty years have taught me that nothing in life is forever and that we must maintain or redouble our efforts in order not to lose the fruit of all our labors. I am not racist, yet, when I see women of other ethnicities, held by their controlling religion, wanting to impose itself in our society, I am afraid. I am afraid because these men and these women do not know by what path we have traveled. More so, these young quebecoises who embrace this religion which veils its women do not remember. It is therefore by ignorance that one explains their choice.
…
I am now a grandmother of four marvelous little girls and I am afraid. I am afraid when I see a veiled woman working in a CPE or in a school or even when a child is left to wear a Kirpan. We had gotten rid of our all our religious symbols and now here they come back into the very place where the education of our newest generation is crucial and at the time in which one must inculcate the fundamental principles of social life to our children. The tolerance towards these religious symbols such as the veil, the Kirpan, the turban in the CPE, in our schools and in our institutions in general is a lack of respect for the preceding generations that worked so hard to escape the grip that religion had over our lives. You do not remember! But I, I remember and in this regard, I have no tolerance and I do not want any accomodation out of respect for my mother, my aunt and for my little girls.

I remember that the charter of rights and freedoms permits each to practice the religion of their choice, but for pity’s sake have this religion stay at home. The wearing of the veil in the muslim religion is for us the most important demonstration of the submission of the woman and this is what frightens us and shocks us because we remember. We remember that this symbol existed fifty years ago and we do not want to go backwards.

Whether one prays to Jesus, mohammed or Buddha doesn’t matter to me, but we have fought, quebecois and quebecoises, for our society to be secular. We quebecoises have fought to obtain the right of equality of speech between men and women as well as for equality for opportunities in the workplace. Remember that if you have immigrated to Canada and especially to Quebec, it is to take part of an open society that offers you, on a silver platter, all the gains that previous generations have won, particularly in the areas of rights for women. I want to believe that it is through the ignorance of our traditions and our customs and not by lack of respect that muslim women want to show to the light of day the imposition of this symbol of their faith that is the veil.

Maybe our society has gone too far with its liberties. But, the pendulum must stop in the middle and not regress back to the beginning. We must remember. The integration into a society must start with the respect of its traditions and its customs through the respect shown towards its male and female citizens who have participated in its practice.

Maybe our history books do not remember or maybe they simply have not been updated yet. It is therefore the responsibility of the government to apply our motto “Je me souviens” [“I remember”] to our History and to integrate this History with the efforts of our previous generations to reach the society of today and especially to assure all that the coming generations can remember. It is also the responsibility of
reception agencies for immigrants to make them know this Quebec motto “Je me souviens” so that these newcomers do not think that we are racist simply because we remember and we do not want to impose upon our progeny the need to take up the same struggles that we went through fifty years ago.
[Bold retained from original text]