Hérouxville Mayor Bernard Thompson’s hints that the town council was considering scrapping its controversial “code of conduct” have created an uproar in the small community. A group of residents and councillors called an emergency meeting last week to tell the mayor they wanted him to backtrack on his comments.
In 2007, then-town councillor André Drouin co-authored the “life code,” which warned prospective immigrants to the village of 1,300 residents that they were not allowed to burn or stone women or practice female circumcision.
Last month, Thompson said some residents wanted to distance themselves from the document and are tired of being asked about it every time they tell someone they are from Hérouxville, a small town north of Trois-Rivières.
After the emergency meeting, the town council decided it would send out a press release this week stating that the “life code” will not be abolished.
The statement will emphasize that the code has no legal force because the municipality is bound by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Drouin said he has no idea why Thompson, who supported the document three years ago, implied that the code would be abolished. The idea does not have the support of the other town councillors, Drouin added.
“They were very unhappy,” he said. “It is not true that people are embarrassed to say they are from Hérouxville.”
Solange Gervais, president of the town’s historical society, said yesterday that the residents support the document and want the code to be maintained.
Hérouxville’s manifesto, coupled with several highly publicized cases of religious accommodation in Montreal, led Premier Jean Charest to appoint the Bouchard-Taylor Commission into the treatment of religious minorities in Quebec.
Although Drouin is no longer a town councillor in Hérouxville, he has continued to speak publicly about issues of immigration and reasonable accommodation of minorities. Two weeks ago, he was in Quebec City testifying at the legislative committee looking at banning niqabs and burkas. Drouin testified that Quebec should adopt a moratorium on immigration.
The town’s secretary said Monday that Thompson was on holiday and would not be fielding calls from reporters.