Those damn racist French!

Amazing! This goes down in the history of the 21st century as the summer when the French -- leaders of the great enlightenment of the 19th century -- decided the national motto of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" needed a rethink.

Political correctness be damned. We are not all equal. As for the brotherhood (and sisterhood?) of man...forget it!

In August the French became the first European nation to do what all the rest secretly wished they could do. They told the Roma -- the people our mothers called "gypsies" -- to go home to Romania. The European Union decried the expulsion of these poor downtrodden parasites [refugees, surely! ed.] as barbaric and (of course) racist.

Now the French senate, by a pretty convincing majority -- 246 to 1 -- has voted to ban the burqa, the complete head-to-toe covering made fashionable by Middle Eastern Muslim women. The measure had been passed, almost as overwhelmingly, by the lower House of Assembly in July.

How does this square with the idea of fraternity and the brotherhood of man? The French are justly famous for their ability to torture logic and philosophy. Here is the rationale of those behind the measure.

The wearing of the burqa symbolizes one's religious faith, they say, and sets wearers apart as being different from other Frenchwomen. Therefore it is a threat to France's unique values, including its secular foundation and a notion of fraternity that is contrary to those who hide their faces.

Hm. What about the USA and Canada? Aren't we supposed to be secular nations? In Canada the liberals even succeeded in getting all references to God removed from the constitution, if not the national anthem. In the USA, church and state are supposed to be strictly separate.

Both countries also proclaim their belief in the principle of national unity. (OK, maybe not Canada.) My point is that the argument for the banning of the burqa could be applied to the USA and Canada as easily as France. But of course that would make us, like the French, racists and haters. If you don't believe me, just wait for the editorials in the Times and the Globe and Mail.