THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

From guidelines for recent immigrants to Canada,

published in January by the municipality of

Herouxville, Quebec, a town of 1,300.

We Wish, above all, to inform our new arrivals

that the way of life they abandoned in leaving

their country of origin cannot be reproduced

here and that it is necessary for them to find a

way to adapt to their new social identity.

We consider to be outside the norm all actions

or gestures that are contrary to this pronouncement,

such as the practice of stoning women to

death in public places, burning them alive, burning

them with acid, circumcising them, etc.

In all of our schools, the national history of

Quebec is assigned. Biology, too.

You will see men and women skiing on the

same mountain and at the same time. Men and

women on the same hockey team and playing at

the same time on the same ice. Men and women

cross-country skiing at the same time.

In our families, if the children eat beef, they will

not seek to know the provenance of the beef, or

who killed it, or where, or in what manner, or on

what day. In our families, that which is ingested

by the mouth is meant exclusively to nourish the

body. The soul nourishes itself by other means.