In the above video, chapos from outside of Canada might watch what a random Quebecois man said to a candidate for Prime Minister and say “oh wow that guy’s pretty racist” (and most Canadian chapos would say the same thing). You’d obviously be right, but what you may not realize is that it’s much more systemic than that.

In Canada, Quebec is afforded special rights as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (our bill of rights). These rights are mostly that the French language is represented in government and all government communications. There are also special privileges afforded to the province of Quebec, in that they can openly go against other people’s charter rights such as prohibiting religious freedom, as well allowing their cops to beat the fuck out of whoever they please. As a result the Quebecois are both legally and culturally a protected class of people.

This is because Quebec is Canada’s only French province (these rights also extend to New Brunswick, Canada’s only bilingual province, but that’s another story), and these rights exist to preserve the Quebecois culture. The problem is, however, is that their culture has far more in common with the rest of Canada than it does with France, so it can be difficult to pin down anything unique to Quebecois culture. What Quebecois culture seems to be, is what “preserving white culture” is anywhere else in the west, they want people who look like them, act like them and sound like them.

So if you watch the video again, realize that the racist guy is voting for Jagmeet Singh, ideologically they’re both social democrats. He’s completely unaware that telling a Sikh to take his turban off and appeal to the French (white) voters is white supremacy, he just thinks it’s what Canadian politicians need to do to preserve Quebec’s culture.

Anyways, by no means am I an expert in this, just my two cents as somebody who’s lived in Quebec (although in Montreal which is almost entirely English speaking). Let me know if the video is unavailable in your region.