Hérouxville, Quebec

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Municipalité de la paroisse d'
Hérouxville
Coordinates: 46°40′N 72°37′W / 46.667, -72.617
Country Canada
Province Québec
Established April 13, 1913
Government
 - Mayor Martin Périgny
Area
 - Total 54.51 km² (21 sq mi)
Population (2006)
 - Total 1 338
 - Density 23.9/km² (61.9/sq mi)
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)

Hérouxville[1] is a parish municipality in Québec (Canada), located in the Regional county municipality (RCM) of Mékinac, and in the administrative region of Mauricie. It was founded in 1897. A small rural farming town, its main economic activity is agriculture.

Hérouxville is directly on the route to Saint-Tite and the Festival western de Saint-Tite, in addition to being the northeast gateway to Mauricie, a region renowned for its lush forests and quaint villages. It is located within the Laurentian Forest region, which has many lakes and rivers. The town centre of is in the style of the seigneurial period.

Contents

[edit] Reasonable accommodation

Hérouxville received international attention in January of 2007 when its town council passed controversial measures concerning practices which the residents deemed unsuitable for life in Herouxville for potential new immigrants, despite the fact that the town has no immigrant population. [1] Herouxville has a small population of 1,338 residents who are entirely white, francophone, and nominally Catholic.

Other rural communities in the region of Mékinac are also considering similar codes, despite featuring few or no immigrants at all. [2]

The mayor and the municipal council approved a code of behavior for immigrants in the context of the recent debate on reasonable accommodation in Quebec.[2].[3][4] The motion explains many practices the council considers "normal" in Quebec to immigrants who may settle in Herouxville. These standards also state that carrying a weapon to school (even if symbolic), covering one's face, and accommodation of prayer in school will not be permitted.[5] The document, drafted by the council members, states that stoning women or burning them alive is prohibited, as is female genital cutting. It attests that "Our people eat to nourish the body, not the soul", and that health-care professionals "do not have to ask permission to perform blood transfusions." The purpose behind why such serious measures were deemed necessary has raised serious debate concerning immigration in Quebec.

These measures have been denounced as xenophobic and racist by Muslim and Jewish groups, some of which have launched complaints with human rights tribunals.[6] Quebec Premier Jean Charest called these measures "exaggerated" after Town Councillor André Drouin appeared on a popular Quebec television show and said the reasonable accommodation situation had reached a state of emergency in Quebec.[7] The town later revised the standards after a delegation of Muslim women from the Canadian Islamic Congress came to meet townspeople.[8]

The original version of this document was published in French. The translation into English was done by an unknown party and is not identical to the original. An official English translation, which is more reflective of what was written in French, is currently being written.

The Montreal Gazette noted that "While the values espoused might be universal, the code has sparked an international controversy because the intention appears to be to scare off newcomers with a code that presumes the worst of them." [3]

La Presse columnist Alain Dubuc writes that "Although Hérouxville's reaction was xenophobic, immigrants may not be the main target of this revolt ... There is something else at work here, and it's the revolt against the big city, its ideas, its lifestyle, its influence. What happened in Hérouxville is the ultimate expression of the fracture between the metropolis and the regions ... Hérouxville was angered by the tolerance of Montrealers, by their passivity towards the changes brought out by immigration, by their multi-ethnic culture, their rejection of religion, their 'gay village' and their arrogant elites. For small towns such as Hérouxville, the real threat to their identity has little to do with veil-clad Muslim women, it is the urban world that is gradually drifting away from the traditional model." [4]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Municipalité de la paroisse d'Hérouville - Répertoire des municipalités du Québec, Ministère des affaires municipales et des région, consulté le 27 janvier 2007
  2. ^ Herouxville wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens, National Post, January 29, 2007
  3. ^ Strict code of behaviour for immigrants, Radio-Canada, January 2007
  4. ^ Il est interdit de lapider les femmes !, Cyberpresse, 26 janvier 2007
  5. ^ Retract xenophobic 'standards,' Quebec town asked, Globe and Mail,
  6. ^ Critics: Quebec town's conduct code 'xenophobic', CTV.ca, Jan. 29 2007
  7. ^ Charest loses patience with debate over accommodating immigrants, Canoe, February 5, 2007
  8. ^ Hérouxville drops some rules from controversial code


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