The Declaration on Quebec Society's Shared Values that the government of Quebec will force any new immigrant to sign is a response to a real problem: the alienation that common people feel about how the world around them is evolving, and their impotence against threats to their lifestyles. But what Quebec's Liberal government proposes in order to cut the political grass under the feet of the Parti Québécois and the Action Démocratique is no solution.

A charitable interpretation is that this political push is incredibly naive. Can our rulers only distinguish the rule of politicians and bureaucrats and what the declaration calls "the rule of law"? The explanatory document published by the Quebec government states: "The use of violence is prohibited." Why do the cops have guns, then? "Quebec society favours resolving conflicts through negotiation," the same document pontificates. Except if you are a trade union, try negotiating with the state.

All my quotes are my own translations as the documents had not been published in English at this writing.

The declaration itself affirms both that "All Quebecers may freely choose their lifestyles" and that "all must respect all laws whatever their convictions." In clear language, this means that all may freely choose their lifestyle provided it is not one, even a peaceful one, that is forbidden by law. If you are a smoker, a gun owner or a libertarian who just wants to be left alone, you cannot choose your lifestyle. You will be continually harassed by the state even if the explanatory document says that "any form of harassment is prohibited by law."

An immigrant will have to sign the declaration stating that he "understands the full significance of the above." Only the state can get away with this sort of "contract."

The rights actually identified by the explanatory document are mainly anti-discrimination rights, that is, the rights of some privileged groups not to be discriminated against, which means the rights of these groups' members to prevent other people to choose with whom they will associate. The prohibition of private discrimination is at the roots of the common people's malaise, and yet the government declares this to be a common value.

At any rate, no right is a real right since it can only be exercised "under condition of respecting the general welfare" -- which, of course, is defined by the state.

Not everything is bad in the values adumbrated by the Quebec apparatchiks. It's difficult to criticize the separation of church and state, or the equality of men and women -- if equality is really what they mean, instead of bureaucratically enforced positive discrimination.

Except perhaps in a very abstract sense, the very concept of "shared values" is fuzzy. A standard theorem in the theory of social choice (which has been rewarded by a Nobel Memorial Prize to economist Kenneth Arrow) shows that shared values are either inconsistent or dictatorial. What we have here is simply the Quebec state imposing its values.

Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James said immigrating to Quebec "is a privilege, not a right." Nothing surprising here since everything is a privilege kindly granted by our rulers, from driving on the state's roads to owning guns or exercising a profession. Many French-Canadians with century-old roots would never sign the declaration. So, for us, living in Quebec must be a privilege too.

Some privilege. Quebec is already the only Canadian province or territory to have had a negative migratory balance for the past 35 years -- every year, more people leave for other provinces than come here. We are close to the point where Quebec will be a place where people stay only if they belong to the ruling clique or have no other place to go. The ones who don't take off will be joined by the dangerous immigrants willing to sign the Quebec profession of faith towards the state.