MONTREAL — Call it the tale of the kippah Québécois.
My old friend Tony Bergeron went to last Saturday's march against the Quebec Values Charter — wearing a protest costume that may soon be illegal.
He knew Muslims were organizing the event and he wanted them to see they had sympathy from other people too.
As a Catholic-born atheist Bergeron wasn't comfortable wearing a cross, and he felt wearing a Muslim head scarf would be "gender-bending." So he decided to put on a kippah; after all, he knew several Jews who wanted to attend — but couldn't, since the protest was on Yom Kippur.
He'd be their stand-in.
When Bergeron got to the protest in his kippah, the first reaction he got was from an old francophone friend, a lifelong sovereignist. She works as a lunchtime "educator" at French grade school, where two of her colleagues (and friends) are Muslim women in head scarves.
She was enraged at Premier Pauline Marois for making the women feel ostracized. She'd come to the protest to denounce the PQ — and she loved seeing Bergeron in his kippah.
She was far from alone. As he marched in the protest, many Muslims were thrilled to see Bergeron and waved at him. He was approached a number of times by women in head scarves who rushed over to say how touched they were to have the support of others, especially someone Jewish.
"I know there were actual Jews at the protest going unnoticed," says Bergeron, "but I seemed to be the only person in a kippah, so I got lots of attention."
An older Arab man solemnly approached and wished him "Happy Yom Kippur," then said in French: "Premier Marois is trying to divide us, but instead she is creating a rapprochement among minorities — including Arabs and Jews. Thank you for joining us."
Bergeron also spotted some blond-haired women arriving by métro and debating how to put on some head scarves they were obviously wearing for the same reason as him.
It all makes for a heartwarming story, but perhaps even more — because Bergeron may have found a solution to our religious clothing wars. He lives up in Little Italy and his friends are French, so he couldn't buy or borrow a kippah. Instead he made one — out of a tuque.
"I took an old black tuque with red trim and carefully cut out a small kippa with a red slash, but it looked just like the real thing."
Bergeron has created a kippah Québécois or, if you will, a kippaqois that should obviously be legal under the new charter.
After all, the proposed law exempts religious symbols like the cross in the National Assembly and the prayers before many city council meetings — because according to the PQ government, these are part of our "history" and "patrimoine".
But the kippaqois is clearly part of our province's history and heritage too. The tuque goes back to the 1700s when Quebec's early fur trappers first made them out of socks. Similarly, the Quebec kippah goes back to the 1760s, worn by Aaron Hart, one of Quebec's first Jews.
So the kippaqois should logically be exempt from the new charter too.
Maybe a Quebec company can start churning them out for people who want to demonstrate their religious observance in a legitimate "historical" way. It could also look for similar solutions to accommodate other religious minorities.
I mean, who could object to a Muslim niqab head covering cut from the red, white and blue of a Montreal Canadiens scarf? We'd call it a niq-hab. Imagine a head scarf inspector, tape measure in hand, asking someone to remove the Canadiens colours — there'd be a hockey riot.
The Canadiens go back to 1909 — they're our glorieux who conquered the hockey world in Quebec's name. They're a religious symbol themselves.
Of course, the Sikh turban is a larger garment that requires more material than a hockey scarf, so how about making some out of the giant Quebec flags all over the province? They too are exempt from the new charter as historical symbols — despite their religious crosses and fleur-de-lis.
The same exemption should clearly stand for a turban-de-lys.
Those seeking less ostentatious ways to historically decorate their religious symbols might try covering their turban or kippah in Je me souviens stickers. That's been Quebec's official motto since 1939.
Wearing this motto could also let you send a hidden message, just like our mysterious license plate does.
Other religious symbols could be adorned in other elements of our Quebec historical traditions, maybe even using some tiny version of our anglo patrimoine — like the Guaranteed Milk Bottle.
Think of the possibilities! In fact, how about a kippah, turban, or head scarf covered in the ultimate religious symbol that's protected by the new Quebec charter — dozens of tiny, discreet crosses?
The Gazette
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