Identité: l’obligation de résultat du PLQ

Posted by on | immigration, multiculturalism, political philosophy, politics, Quebec

Le gouvernement du Parti libéral a sagement décidé de ne pas déposer en catastrophe un projet de loi sur la laïcité ou la neutralité religieuse de l’État avant la fin de la dernière session parlementaire. La précipitation n’est pas de mise lorsqu’il est question d’enjeux aussi profonds et délicats. Cela étant dit, le gouvernement libéral a maintenant une obligation de résultat dans ce dossier.

Le Parti québécois est entièrement responsable du fiasco qu’a été son projet de Charte de la laïcité. Les problèmes et les risques inhérents à la démarche du PQ ont été identifiés dès que le projet de Charte a été coulé dans les médias. Il faut néanmoins admettre que l’attitude du gouvernement Charest eu égard aux questions identitaires a pavé la voie à l’approche populiste du PQ. On se rappellera que le PLQ a rapidement fait comprendre qu’il ne donnerait pas véritablement suite aux recommandations du Rapport Bouchard-Taylor et qu’il ne voulait pas approcher les questions liées à l’identité et à la place de la religion dans l’espace public avec une perche.… Continue reading

Enlightenment discounted

Posted by on | Uncategorized

I did an enjoyable interview about Enlightenment 2.0 with Michael Enright for CBC’s Sunday Edition, which aired this past weekend (here).

Contrary to most of the publicity I’ve been doing, this one seems to have actually moved some product. As a result, Amazon is now selling the book at a deep discount. So if you’ve been sitting on the fence for a while, now’s the time to make your move!

 … Continue reading

The bottleneck in U.S. higher education

Posted by on | education, inequality

Given the current preoccupation in the United States with economic inequality, it is natural that a certain amount of attention has turned to higher education, and the fact that America’s most prestigious universities no longer really serve as a conduit for class mobility. Thomas Frank, for instance, has been on a tear (here and here) complaining in particular about the fact that tuition rates have gone up 1,200 per cent over the past 30 years. But he – along with all other American commentators that I’ve read – misses a more obvious problem. Even if America’s best universities stopped charging any tuition at all, it would hardly make a dent in social inequality. That’s because it would leave unaffected the most fundamental problem with America’s elite universities, which is that they have almost no students.

Canadians are used to hearing lamentations from south of the border about how competitive parenting has become in the United States – how if you want to get you kid into Yale, you have to start early, with a nanny with a BA delivering “enriched” care, piano or violin lessons, and entry into the most selective kindergarten as a gateway to the better private schools.… Continue reading

John Stuart Mill et le courage de la vérité

Posted by on | elections, political philosophy, politics

J’ai récemment eu la chance d’avoir à expliquer, à l’émission de radio Plus on est de fous, plus on lit, pourquoi je considère qu’il est toujours pertinent de lire John Stuart Mill aujourd’hui. Les raisons ne manquent pas. Dans le temps qui m’était imparti, j’ai surtout insisté sur sa défense de l’individualité et sa critique du paternalisme de l’État ou de l’opinion majoritaire. Pour Mill, on peut légitimement interdire des comportements au nom du tort qui pourrait être causé à autrui, mais jamais pour protéger les individus contre eux-mêmes. Les individus doivent être libres de faire leurs propres expériences, et ils doivent assumer les conséquences de leurs actes. Prévenir le « tort à soi » ne justifie pas, selon lui, la restriction de la liberté. Or, plusieurs positions défendues dans nos débats publics sont fondées au moins en partie sur l’idée que l’État ou la majorité connaît mieux les intérêts des certaines personnes que ces personnes elles-mêmes; pensons, par exemple, au débat sur le sens du hijab, sur les mères porteuses, sur la prostitution ou sur le statut juridique de l’union de fait.… Continue reading

How’s that firewall working out for you guys?

Posted by on | Canada, economy, political philosophy, Western Canada

So the federal government announced its “approval” of the Northern Gateway pipeline. The fact that the Prime Minister said nothing, the Minister of Natural Resources was nowhere to be found, and none of the government’s BC MPs were available for comment, says pretty much everything you need to know about the government’s own estimation that the thing will ever be built.

That they would approve it was a foregone conclusion, since failure to approve it would have been the final nail in the coffin of the Keystone XL pipeline. (One of the major talking points of American Keystone XL opponents is that, if pipelines are so fabulous, then why don’t Canadians just build them on their own soil, why do they have to go through the U.S.?) Furthermore, the only thing that the Harper government has really done in Ottawa, with any sort of consistency, is advance the interests of Alberta and the Alberta tar sands.… Continue reading

And exhale…

Posted by on | Ontario, politics

For all those who don’t care much about Ontario politics, my apologies for having laid it on a bit thick this past month. I pledge to be both less parochial and less partisan in the future. I did however feel obliged to write about the provincial election campaign underway (which culminated last night in the surprise election of a Liberal majority government), because like many people I was genuinely alarmed at how far to the right the Progressive Conservative party was positioning itself. On the one hand, this struck me as a poor strategic move, and a violation of one of the most elementary principles of electoral politics (once you have your base locked down, you move to the centre). On the other hand, people in this province are not going to keep electing the Liberal Party forever, eventually there has to be a change of government. So there was an obvious concern that the PCs might ride to power on anti-Liberal sentiment, despite having a platform that is quite far to the right of the vast majority of the electorate.… Continue reading

Tenured moderates

Posted by on | Uncategorized

There’s been a bit of buzz around a recent study by Kyle Dodson, assistant professor of sociology at the University of California at Merced, showing that interaction with professors tends to have a moderating influence on the political views of students (contrary to the claim that professors have a “radicalizing” influence on students). This from Inside Higher Ed:

With regard to political views, academic engagement promoted moderation. “[T]he results indicate — in contrast to the concerns of many conservative commentators — that academic involvement generally moderates attitudes,” Dodson writes. “While conservative students do become more liberal as a result of academic involvement, liberals become more conservative as a result of their academic involvement. Indeed it appears that a critical engagement with a diverse set of ideas — a hallmark of the college experience — challenges students to re-evaluate the strength of their political convictions.”

The data on student activities demonstrate the opposite impact: The more involved that liberal students get, the more liberal they become, while the more involved conservative students get, the more conservative they become.” This finding suggests that students seek out and engage with familiar social environments — a choice that leads to the strengthening of their political beliefs.”

I’m happy that someone decided to study this, as the result certainly accords with my own experience.… Continue reading

Modestly Resisting Political Amnesia

Posted by on | Uncategorized

Catherine recently posted a reminder that the Harper’s government’s scandalous and wholly unfounded attack on the Chief Justice of Supreme Court has faded from public view without any satisfactory resolution of the matter. On May 1 2014, Harper impugned the integrity of the Chief Justice by falsely suggesting that the Chief Justice had wrongly tried to contact him to discuss possible problems with his proposed appointment to the Supreme Court. Despite being pressed by hundreds legal academics and lawyers to set the record straight, Harper has steadfastly refused to even acknowledge that his remarks were inappropriate, let alone apologize for them. Regrettably, Harper’s decision to stubbornly carry on as though he has done nothing wrong is a reflection of some cynical but probably accurate calculations about the half-life of this kind of political scandal. My guess is that Harper and his political advisors have calculated that the controversy about disrespecting the Chief Justice will be forgotten before it has the chance to do any real political damage.… Continue reading

Mariage et union de fait: le paternalisme justifié du Conseil du statut de la femme

Posted by on | inequality, law, political philosophy, politics, Quebec

Au Canada, c’est au Québec que l’on trouve le plus grand nombre de couples vivant en union de fait. C’est aussi au Québec que le conjoint le plus vulnérable est le moins protégé au moment de la dissolution d’un couple non-marié. Le plus souvent, le « conjoint le plus vulnérable » est la conjointe. En gros, il n’y a pas de véritable partage du patrimoine et le conjoint le plus fortuné n’est pas obligé de verser une pension alimentaire, sauf une pension pour l’enfant né de l’union, le cas échéant.

Au moment du débat sur l’arrêt Éric c. Lola, j’étais malgré tout en faveur du maintien d’une distinction juridique significative entre union de fait et mariage. Cela m’a toujours semblé une question difficile, mais l’existence de l’ « union de fait » en tant que catégorie juridique distincte en droit de la famille offre une option supplémentaire aux couples en matière de vie conjugale.… Continue reading