À l’automne 2013, le Parti Québécois dépose un projet de « Charte des valeurs québécoises » (projet de loi n°60) qui veut laïciser l’État provincial, en interdisant notamment le port de signes religieux par les employés de l’État. S’ensuivent des débats âpres et parfois haineux autour du statut de la religion et de l’islam en particulier dans la société provinciale. Le présent texte propose une analyse thématique de dix pages Facebook en faveur du projet de loi. Il tente de déterminer la nature politique des arguments que ces pages développent, et pose la question de l’émergence d’une extrême droite au Québec en recourant aux concepts d’extrême droite et de droite radicale présentement débattus dans la littérature européenne. Il conclut que les arguments et les thèmes développés dans ces pages les rattachent à une mouvance de « droite radicale ».In fall 2013, the Parti Québécois proposed the Quebec Charter of Values (Bill 60), which aimed to secularize the provincial government, namely by prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols by public employees. Once tabled, the bill was subject to fierce and sometimes nasty debates about the status of religion, and in particular Islam, in Quebec. This text offers a thematic analysis of ten Facebook pages in support of the bill. It attempts to determine the political nature of the arguments that these pages present and examines the question of the emergence of an extreme right in Quebec by drawing from discussions of the extreme right and radical right in the current European research literature. The text concludes that the arguments and themes developed on these Facebook pages are indicative of a movement of the “radical right.
In August 2013, the Government of the Parti Québécois first introduced the idea for a Quebec Charter of Values. This led to a stiff debate during which anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiments were expressed by government officials, newspaper columnists and other well-known public figures. These opinions were in turn appropriated and disseminated by a number of citizens throughout social medias. In some regards, these attitudes and opinions are akin to those of extreme right movements and parties in Europe and the United States. In this article, we ask whether we are witnessing the rise of an extreme right in Quebec, a political stance so far estranged to this society. We start with a conceptual discussion of the notion of extreme right and then proceed to analyze the arguments put forward to support the Charter of Values. We conclude that even though the debates do reveal the "radicalization" of certain segments of public opinion toward the right, it is not possible to categorize this shift as the blooming of an "extreme right" in the full sense of the term.
RésuméEn août 2013, le gouvernement du Parti Québécois lance pour la première fois l'idée d'une "Charte des valeurs québécoises". Dans les mois suivants, le projet va générer d'intenses débats durant lesquels de nombreuses personnalités (politiciens, éditorialistes, chroniqueurs, comédiens, etc.) revendiqueront publiquement des postures anti-immigration et anti-islam. Ces prises de position seront ensuite appropriées et largement relayées par divers groupes de citoyens sur les réseaux sociaux, dont Facebook. Dans la mesure où ces discours s'apparentent à ceux de mouvements ou partis politiques qui, en Europe, sont associés à l'extrême droite, cet article demande si les débats autour de la Charte sont révélateurs de l'émergence d'une extrême droite québécoise. Il débute par une discussion conceptuelle autour de la notion d'extrême droite, puis entreprend d'analyser les arguments avancés par les partisans de la Charte pour soutenir le projet. Si nos observations permettent d'établir la « radicalisation » effective de certains segments de l'opinion publique vers la droite, ce glissement ne peut être catégorisé comme étant révélateur d'une « extrême droite » dans le sens plein du terme. for employees of the public and para-public sectors, to wear an "object which ostensibly displays one's religious affiliation" (art. 5). Other articles require employees and users of public services to provide and receive services with their "face uncovered" (art. 6 and 7), and ban activities and practices in childcare and schools "such as dietary practices stemming from a religious precept" (art. 30).
INTRODUCTIONThe Bill generated a large public debate, during which anti-immigration and antiIslam sentiments were expressed (Helly 2014). According to surveys, 51% of respondents declared themselves in favor of the Charter in September 2013. Their proportion grew to 59% in January 2015, and 16% of the respondents revealed having a negative perception of immigrants (
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