ABSTRACT
A factor that amplified the sense that the accommodation of diversity was going too far and that it was threatening fundamental values is that the notion itself of "reasonable accommodation" was not well understood by the general public. Feeling that the debate was getting out of control and that it was giving an edge to the right-wing Action Democratique du Quebec (ADQ), the (Liberal) Government of Quebec decided to create a high-profile public commission in February 2007, one month before calling a general election. The Bouchard-Taylor Commission was a "consultation commission". It organized hearings in all the administrative regions of the province from September to December 2007. The commissioners defended a version of an inclusive society resting on a pluralist yet robust "common public culture". The commission's Final Report was a crucial contribution to public deliberation not only for its formal policy recommendations, but also for the hermeneutics of Quebec's political culture that it proposed.
