Naturally, some of my leftwing and liberal friends and some non-Quebec Canadian pundits on the left, are leaping to make the connection between Trump's recent travel ban and this horrible tragedy.
The police have now revised their previous public comments and have now named not two suspects, but one suspect, Alexandre Bissionnettte as the alleged shooter in the mosque who allegedly killed six Muslim men and injured eight others.
I caution my left wing, anti-Trump friends. Hear me out before you wrongly leap to make a connection between Trump’s travel ban and this horrible tragedy.
This is a horrible terrorist action which has appeared to target a specific religious group, being Muslims. Alexandre Bissionnette is a white male student studying political science at the liberal Universite of Laval.
The province of Quebec has an unfortunate history of being prejudicial to minorities, including Jewish people
It is interesting to note that judging from Bissionnette's Facebook--Now Offline--, he likes the left wing New Democratic Party, its previous, late leader, Jack Layton and the left-leaning Parti Quebecois of the Universite of Laval.
Recall the provincial PQ Party under previous Quebec nationalist leader Pauline Marois promoted a Quebec Charter of Values which specifically wanted to ban the wearing of religious symbols such as the hijab in public institutions. .
The province of Quebec has an unfortunate history of being prejudicial to minorities, including Jewish people.
I am a third generation Quebec Jew, and I know from my own personal experience that my parents, grandparents and great grandparents had often experienced anti-Semitism at the hands of the greater French Quebec majority. Our experiences were characteristic of what many Quebec Jews have and had experienced in the last 150 years in Quebec .
French-speaking Catholic Quebec has also had unfortunate relationships over the years with its other minorities.
All ethnic groups who were not French-speaking or whose mother tongue was not English, were treated as second-class citizens
In 1970 the Quebec government, in an effort to preserve and protect the French language and culture, also targeted all minority groups, i.e. Italians and Greeks, whose mother tongues were not English, and prevented children of such minority groups from sending their children to their schools of their choice, i.e. English-speaking schools.
In effect, all ethnic groups who were not French-speaking or whose mother tongue was not English, were treated as second-class citizens.
I do not know the extent of Bissionnette's background, but the majority Quebec French Catholic nationalist people and culture, as reflected by the PQ's Charter of Values, have some issues with other religions and cultures, whose values and views appear inconsistent with the more secular, modern and pro gender equality and sexual equality views of the French Quebec majority.
Bissionnette's Facebook also indicated that he ‘Facebook liked’ John McCain and Donald Trump.
Naturally, some of my leftwing and liberal friends and some non-Quebec Canadian pundits on the left, are leaping to make the connection between Trump's recent travel ban and this horrible tragedy.
Such a leap shows a lack of knowledge and understanding of the French Quebec nationalist culture, the social/political Quebec environment and Quebec history.
Such a narrative may justify one's anti-Trump feelings and views, but to me, do not apply or are relevant to understanding the causes or motives of this horrible tragedy.
Mitch Wolfe, a graduate of Harvard University, is the author of “Trump: How He Captured The Trump White House”, which he wrote and had published prior to the election. (available on Amazon.com)
