The Montreal Gazette this morning reports on a new poll that surveys Quebecers attitudes about the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, currently making its way around the province to listen to what Quebecers have to say about the integration of minorities into the province's cultural fabric. To critics — and apparently to a majority of poll respondents — the commission's hearings have become little more than a cesspool of bigotry and xenophobia.
…six weeks after the 17-city “reasonable accommodation” road show got under way and derogatory remarks against Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and other religious minorities started flying – it seems that Quebecers think the chairmen were right to worry.
In a new poll, 62 per cent – rising to 74 per cent in central Quebec, scene of the Hérouxville controversy – said the commission should have done something from the outset to prevent racist and anti-Semitic statements from being expressed.
And 40 per cent of non-francophones polled said those views are so objectionable that the hearings should no longer be carried live on Radio-Canada.