Tempest in a Lard Pot

What's this? Journal de Montreal pointing an accusatory finger of 'pandering' to Muslims on the part of the Quebecois maple syrup industry? Pandering - really, isn't that quite dreadful! The purity of Quebecois culture, its culinary traditions on the verge of collapse because a few maple syrup shack operators appreciate the interest in those very traditions on the part of some members of the Muslim population residing in the province.

Whoa! Let me get this straight; not all that long ago one little town decided to take matters into their own hands, despite no Muslims as yet being resident within their confines by issuing a set of guidelines aimed directly at Muslims to inform them of Quebecois cultural expectations. Newcomers, immigrants to Canada, are expected to integrate nicely, thank you very much, to appreciate what Canada has to offer. Else why come here?

Fact is immigrants come to Canada and have emigrated here for as long as the history books recount, to take advantage of the opportunities provided in this vast new landscape. Recent immigrants don't quite resemble, in cultural traditions, religion and world outlook exactly what early immigrants brought with them, but in Canada's early days we took our immigrants grudgingly if they didn't come from the Anglo-Saxon end of the British Empire.

Canada is a little more mature now, a little more self-assured, quite a lot more enamoured of multi-ethnicity as an enriching factor in our social make-up. How can members of a minority community be faulted for wanting to partake in all the quaint cultural traditions of the country they have joined? Sugaring-off and all the little rituals that devolve from it constitute fun at the close of winter, the opportunity to welcome spring. Everyone should experience it if it appeals to them.

What on earth can possibly be wrong with omitting ham from the stock in pea soup to enable Muslims to eat that culinary treat? It's simple courtesy. Baked beans made without lard sounds pretty appealing to me; in fact it's how I prepare that very nice dish myself and it hasn't proved to be detrimental to the taste at all. This is a business, after all, and smart business owners accommodate themselves to the needs and tastes of their clientele.

Yet here are the huffy owners of maple syrup shacks located in Quebec who consider compromise to be an unthinkable assault on their cultural sensibilities. Well get over it. Pig fat fried until its crisp? Ugh, and more ugh. It's unpalatable-sounding, unattractive to a fault, and unhealthy to boot. That's the kind of tradition that could use some revising. "We serve a traditional menu and it's a tradition that goes back centuries," said Ginette Poissant, owner of the Cabane a sucre Dinelle in St. Remi. "If people come here, they should follow the tradition."

Thanks for warning us, and no thanks. Ms. Poissant claims her erabliere is not in the business of altering its menu to serve different tastes. She claims to having had a telephone call from a Muslim group requesting chicken fingers during their visit. No, they couldn't be accommodated. Her intransigent lack of business sense, her insensitivity to the cultural/religious mores of others says more about her than it does of those who sought to experience some semblance of another cultural tradition.

Then these good people can go elsewhere, for not all maple sugar shack operators in Quebec are as obdurately righteous about tradition as is Ms. Poissant (did the 'power' in her name go to her head?). Jac Choquet, in business for almost half a century, at Domaine Choquet and Chalet du boise Varennois in Varennes, doesn't mind a few minor changes to his menu for groups who call ahead to his farm. He doesn't consider that he is bending backward to accommodate strangers; he sees it as 'simple good business'. And just incidentally he's sensitively aware that there are other cultures' needs to be observed.

"If you want to be respected, you have to show respect" he says.