I don't care what religion it is! It's still a dagger!

Quebec can be a little draconian at times with their stupid language laws, distinct society, and separatism, etc. etc.

No one has been able to figure out yet if it is because they are a minority in Canada, or just plain because they are French!

In Montreal, a cosmopolitan sort of town, a dispute erupted after a gym's windows were obscured to block the view of exercising women from the Hasidic Jewish synagogue across the street and pools have been asked for gender-specific swim times to accommodate religious groups.

Men were banned from prenatal classes at a Montreal community centre to accommodate Muslim, Sikh and Hindu women, and a city police publication came under fire for suggesting female officers should defer to male colleagues when dealing with men from certain religions.

However, one little town in Quebec seems to have all its marbles as this piece sent by Dene Moore of Canada Press shows!

HEROUXVILLE, QUE. -- A sign at the entrance of this rural Quebec town says: Herouxville welcomes you.

Unless, that is, you plan on stoning a woman to death, sending your kids to school with a kirpan or covering your face other than on Halloween.

The town council of Herouxville, a sleepy town dominated by a towering Roman Catholic church, has adopted a declaration of "norms" that it says would-be immigrants should be aware of before they settle in this town. Among them, it is forbidden to stone women or burn them with acid.

Children cannot carry weapons to school. That includes ceremonial religious daggers such as kirpans, even though the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Sikhs can carry kirpans in schools.

However, children can swim in a pool with other children -- boys and girls alike -- because they can't be segregated.

And for the record, female police officers in Herouxville, 165 kilometres northwest of Montreal, can arrest male suspects. Also part of the declaration is that women can drive, dance and make decisions on their own.

"We're telling people who we are," said Andre Drouin, one of six town councillors and the driving force behind the declaration passed this month.

The small town has only one immigrant family and wants more!

But Drouin said the declaration, which was posted on the town's website and sent to the provincial and federal immigration ministers, is the result of a number of recent culture clashes across the country.

I would love to live in a progressive little town like Herouxville except for one thing! They would probably want me to learn French!

Your "Damn the P.C." scribe;
Allan W Janssen