Hérouxville, Quebec

Infobox City
official_name = Municipalité de la paroisse d'
Hérouxville
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_name = Canada
subdivision_name1 = Québec
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name = Martin Périgny
established_title = Founded
established_date = 1897
established_title = Established
established_date = April 13 1913
area_total_km2 = 54.51
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 1 338
population_density_km2 = 23.9
timezone = Eastern (EST)
utc_offset = -5
timezone_DST = EDT
utc_offset_DST = -4
latd=46 |latm=40 |lats= |latNS=N
longd=72 |longm=37 |longs= |longEW=W

Hérouxville [ [http://www.mamr.gouv.qc.ca/cgi-bin/repert1.pl?region=&mrc=&geo=35035&muni= Municipalité de la paroisse d'Hérouville - Répertoire des municipalités du Québec] , Ministère des affaires municipales et des région, consulté le 27 janvier 2007] is a parish municipality in Quebec (Canada), located in the Regional county municipality (RCM) of Mékinac, and in the administrative region of Mauricie. It was founded in 1897. A small rural farming town, its main economic activity is agriculture.

Hérouxville is directly on the route to Saint-Tite and the Festival western de Saint-Tite, in addition to being the northeast gateway to Mauricie, a region renowned for its lush forests and quaint villages. It is located within the Laurentian Forest region, which has many lakes and rivers. The town centre of is in the style of the seigneurial period.

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Reasonable accommodation

Hérouxville received international attention in January 2007 when its town council passed controversial measures concerning practices which the residents deemed unsuitable for life in Herouxville for potential new immigrants, despite the fact that the town has no immigrant population. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070129/K012917AU.html] ] Herouxville has a small population of 1,338 residents who are entirely white, francophone, and nominally Catholic.

Other rural communities in the region of Mékinac are also considering similar codes, despite featuring few or no immigrants at all. [RENE BRUEMMER AND KEVIN DOUGHERTY, " [http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=8af3c4eb-5bc7-40bc-ba38-93f785c5646a Herouxville: Cause Celebre] ," "The Gazette" (February 02 2007).]

The mayor and the municipal council approved a code of behavior for immigrants in the context of the recent debate on reasonable accommodation in Quebec. [ [http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=ac491c78-76df-467b-ab58-2bc90e4bfb63&k=83142 Herouxville wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens, National Post, January 29, 2007] ] [ [http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/regional/modele.asp?page=/regions/mauricie/2007/01/27/001-herouxville-immigramts.shtml Strict code of behaviour for immigrants, Radio-Canada, January 2007] ] [ [http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070126/CPACTUALITES/70126280/5025/CPDMINUTE Il est interdit de lapider les femmes !, Cyberpresse, 26 janvier 2007] ] The motion explains many practices the council considers "normal" in Quebec to immigrants who may settle in Herouxville. These standards also state that carrying a weapon to school (even if symbolic), covering one's face, and accommodation of prayer in school will not be permitted. [ [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070131.TOWN31/TPStory/National Retract xenophobic 'standards,' Quebec town asked, Globe and Mail, ] ] The document, drafted by the council members, states that stoning women or burning them alive is prohibited, as is female genital cutting. It attests that "Our people eat to nourish the body, not the soul", and that health-care professionals "do not have to ask permission to perform blood transfusions." The purpose behind why such serious measures were deemed necessary has raised serious debate concerning immigration in Quebec.

These measures have been denounced as xenophobic and racist by Muslim and Jewish groups, some of which have launched complaints with human rights tribunals. [ [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070129/code_conduct_070129/20070129?hub=Canada Critics: Quebec town's conduct code 'xenophobic', CTV.ca, Jan. 29 2007] ] Quebec Premier Jean Charest called these measures "exaggerated" after Town Councillor André Drouin appeared on a popular Quebec television show and said the reasonable accommodation situation had reached a state of emergency in Quebec. [ [http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/02/05/3539395-cp.html Charest loses patience with debate over accommodating immigrants, Canoe, February 5, 2007] ] The town later revised the standards after a delegation of Muslim women from the Canadian Islamic Congress came to meet townspeople. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/02/13/qc-herouxville20070213.html#skip300x250 Hérouxville drops some rules from controversial code] ]

The original version of this document was published in French. The translation into English was done by an unknown party and is not identical to the original. An official English translation, which is more reflective of what was written in French, is currently being written.

The "Montreal Gazette" noted that "While the values espoused might be universal, the code has sparked an international controversy because the intention appears to be to scare off newcomers with a code that presumes the worst of them." [RENE BRUEMMER AND KEVIN DOUGHERTY, " [http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=8af3c4eb-5bc7-40bc-ba38-93f785c5646a&p=2 Herouxville: Cause Celebre] ," "The Gazette" (February 02 2007).]

"La Presse" columnist Alain Dubuc writes that "Although Hérouxville's reaction was xenophobic, immigrants may not be the main target of this revolt ... There is something else at work here, and it's the revolt against the big city, its ideas, its lifestyle, its influence. What happened in Hérouxville is the ultimate expression of the fracture between the metropolis and the regions ... Hérouxville was angered by the tolerance of Montrealers, by their passivity towards the changes brought out by immigration, by their multi-ethnic culture, their rejection of religion, their 'gay village' and their arrogant elites. For small towns such as Hérouxville, the real threat to their identity has little to do with veil-clad Muslim women, it is the urban world that is gradually drifting away from the traditional model." [ [http://www.voy.com/171963/81836.html] ]

ee also

*List of communities in Quebec

External links

* [http://herouxville-quebec.blogspot.com Official blog about the Herouxville Standards]
* [http://municipalite.herouxville.qc.ca Municipality of Hérouxville Official Page]
* [http://municipalite.herouxville.qc.ca/Standards.pdf ‘Life Standards’ of the Herouxville Municipality]
* [http://municipalite.herouxville.qc.ca/normes.pdf 'Normes de vie' de la municipalité d'Hérouxville (in French)]

Notes and references