IF you doubt that the fine notion of a human right is degenerating into a greasy little phrase used to hold Western mores to ransom, it's time to return to the birthplace of multiculturalism. Canada, the country that invented multiculturalism more than 30 years ago, has been consumed with another doctrine in recent weeks. Canadians call it "reasonable accommodation of minorities". Translated into Australian, the question becomes: at what point should we tell minorities "You've had a fair go, pal, now stop asking for special favours"?

The Supreme Court overturns a Quebec school board's ban on Sikh students wearing a kirpan - a ceremonial metal dagger - to school because it infringes a boy's religious freedom. Female police officers in Montreal are requested to let their male counterparts deal with Orthodox Jews who find it offensive to be touched by a female. A Filipina mother complains to the Quebec Human Rights Commission about her son being chided at school for the way he eats. The school said they were targeting bad manners. The mother said it was the traditional Filipino way of eating. And on and on it goes.

Against that background, a small town in Quebec caused quite a stir last month by issuing a set of standards so newcomers understand "the social life and habits and customs" of life in their new country.

The provocative statement issued by Herouxville says that a "woman can drive a car, vote, sign cheques, dance, decide for herself, speak her piece, dress as she sees fit ... walk alone in public places, study, have a job ... However, we consider that killing women in public beatings or burning them alive are not part of our standards of life."

The statement explains that townsfolk listen to music, drink alcohol and decorate Christmas trees. Boys and girls play games together, men and women ski on the same hill, and "if you came to my place we would send the kids to swim together in the pool".

"Don't be surprised, this is normal for us," the declaration says. It seems that Herouxville, a town with no migrants but in need of immigration, has been watching events unfold in Europe. Mayor Claude Dupont told one newspaper that the standards are "saying out loud what some people are thinking quietly but don't have the balls to say".

Here's the money quote:

Lawyers would have us believe these are legal questions only their learned friends on the bench can determine. It's nothing more than a naked grab for power and a belief that their views on these matters are more educated than the great unwashed. At the hands of the legal profession and a zealous human rights industry, terms such as human rights and discrimination have fast fallen into disrepute.

Lawyers may be consciously or unconsciously blind to the dilemma. But the upshot is clear enough: accommodating minority demands for special group rights that conflict with liberal democracies is nothing short of cannibalisation of Western culture.

I love Aussies...

The Austrailian