Saturday, December 6, 2008

Taboo terms: “Quebec separatism”, “Islamic terrorism”

All through this week’s "crisis", the Anglo and Quebec media punditry, the Lib/NDP/BQ coalition, the BQ, the PQ and other sensitive souls have been waxing alarmed about the use of the word "separatist" inflaming Quebec separatism. Here are some sensible responses to that loopy line of thinking:

Ezra Levant: Separatists aren't the separatist threat. People who point out they're separatist are

...the new line is that it's "divisive" to point out that the coalition contains 49 avowed Quebec separatists.

...The separatists are divisive by definition -- they literally want to divide Canada.

Robert Fulford: The Normalization Of Separatism

Jeffrey Simpson wrote in The Globe and Mail yesterday that Harper, under threat of defeat, "whipped up anti-Quebec sentiments outside the province."

No, he didn't. He whipped up anti-separatist sentiments, a quite different matter -- though for some people, the new eminence of the Bloc has made the distinction hard to remember.

This is reminiscent of media "sensitivity" to Mohammedan hyper-sensitivities to references to "Islamic terrorism" and the consequent p-c sanitizing of the term by the media - as in Mark Steyn’s "Jews get killed, but Muslims feel vulnerable" in yesterday’s OC Register.

2 comments:

hunter said...

Very true. We must tip toe around, using politically correct words, so that we make sure we do not offend anyone by calling them what they really are.

The Bloq are separatists, that is their mandate. It's a good thing that Quebec and the rest of Canada have been reminded of this little fact.

JR said...

And the irony is that the least deceptive player in this whole affair is the Bloc Quebecois. They're up front about their agenda to break up the country and in the meantime they're in it to get the best deal for Quebecers and nothing else - the RoC including their 'coalition' partners be damned.