Ontario has found its voice on the Quebec question.

Belatedly, MPPs voted this week to reaffirm Ontario’s commitment to diversity and religious freedoms. Without any legislative debate — perhaps on the premise that the less said, the better — the carefully worded missive sends a muted but unmistakable message to Quebecers over the controversial Bill 21:

“Ontario and its government shall oppose any law that would seek to restrict or limit the religious freedoms of our citizens,” the motion reads, “consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Ontarians care about the fate of their fellow Canadians next door who can no longer serve as judges or teachers if they dare to wear their faith on their heads, be it a hijab, turban or kippah.

The diplomatic wording tries hard to avoid poking the Quebec bear that persists in prodding religious minorities, for fear that Premier François Legault will play the victim while victimizing people of faith. It is a political paradox of our times that this premier feels persecuted even as he persecutes those whose only sin is being pious in public.

We are taught to believe that human rights — be they voting rights or religious rights — are always immutable. But they are too often political.

Just ask Doug Ford, who within weeks of taking power as Ontario’s premier “for the people” proceeded to abuse that power by meddling in a municipal election in midcampaign, stripping candidates of the wards they were contesting. Not content to trample on democracy, Ford trashed the judiciary and went on to diminish Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, threatening to invoke its “notwithstanding clause” to override any judge who dared to overrule him.

Ford diminished himself then and has disqualified himself now from appealing to Quebec’s premier on matters of basic rights. For just as Ford tried to put himself beyond the reach of judges, so too Legault has invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to seek immunity from prosecution as he continues his persecution.

Having downsized Toronto’s city council with an imperial edict, Ford next downsized the rights of Ontario’s francophone minority by removing long-standing protections — rendering him the least qualified messenger to reach out to Quebecers on minority rights.

Quebec has struggled for years with the tension between state secularism and freedom, the conflict between expressions of piety and laïcité (separation of religion from government). A separatist Parti Quebecois government first stoked xenophobic impulses by pursuing laïcité with a vengeance, until it lost to a federalist Liberal government in Quebec City that sought a middle ground, which in turn lost to the current nationalist CAQ government that reverted to revanchism, which is where we find ourselves today.

Federal politicians have also struggled with the politics of persecution. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been deliberately coy about a federal intervention, lest he stoke the embers of resentment among political and journalistic elites who believe themselves to be embattled even as they dictate dress codes.

But Trudeau at least left the door open for a future challenge by Ottawa, even as he kept his head down and mouth closed in the recent election campaign. His federal rivals were even more calculating, ruling out any intervention less it cost them at the ballot box.

The most tortured bafflegab on this point came from Jagmeet Singh. The federal NDP leader tied himself in knots by pointing to his turban as evidence of his passion for religious rights, even as he showed no evident compassion for those denied the right to wear turbans as judges or teachers in Quebec.

Incidentally, Singh is not being held to a higher standard here — he set that standard for himself by fighting for human rights throughout his political career until he fretted about losing seats in Quebec for daring to do the right thing. More to the point, the NDP itself set the highest of standards, long before Singh took over, notably when Tommy Douglas spoke out against the War Measures Act in 1971 (pointedly ignoring the popularity of a police and army crackdown in Quebec).

As an Ontario MPP in 2013, Singh spoke out in the legislature against repression of religious rights in Quebec: “It is important to make it clear where we stand — that we certainly stand, as a province and as a nation, in support of these freedoms.”

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This week, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath supported the motion of condemnation for Quebec’s Bill 21, put forward by Michael Coteau (who happens to be running for the leadership of the provincial Liberals). Pressed to explain Singh’s sudden silence, Horwath herself fell silent.

Proof, perhaps, that rights are always immutable but ever political. For some politicians, where you stand depends on where you sit — and where you run.

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