No, not that S word. And no, it's nothing to do with the Showtime program about a bunch of lesbians living in the city, just trying to make it work.

No, I'm talking about the word which shall not be breathed less you want a veritable tidal wave of Anglo-Canadian chest-thumping and circle-jerking.

Yes, Separatism.

First, let me say that I'm an Anglophone. I'm approaching bilingualism, but I'm not quite there yet. I've only been in Quebec for a couple of months but I feel like I've grasped at least the reactionary will and justification that defines the sovereignty movement.

But the rest of the country – and some in Quebec – don't want to try and understand separatism. They honestly believe if they don't talk about it and try to suppress it on all fronts, they'll actually win. It's an embarrassing slapstick comedy that resembles a mother trying to protect her son from the evils of pornography.

Which is a pretty apt comparison – it gets people really worked up, it's pretty well ubiquitous, and a lot of them are faking it.

Enter Nycole Turmel, bright eyed and bushy tailed, walking right into a wood chipper.

Charge the NDP with whatever you will, but perhaps their biggest failure on a communications side of thing is that they're incapable of understanding what will make hay in politics. It's a sort of refreshing naivete that borders on frustrating. Due to a lax summer news cycle, and perhaps because the media was starting to get uncomfortable with addressing the underlying realities of our society caused by the Oslo shooting, the NDP were just the easy target. Like shooting deer in a barrel.

The piousness of the Holy Canadian Empire soon came out in full force. In the kangaroo court of public opinion, the curly-wigged judge presiding over the Parliamentary Press Gallery banged their gavel and yelled “OFF WITH HER HEAD.”

Turmel did nothing wrong. She, like probably the majority of Quebecker, briefly supported the Bloc Quebecois. Not because they're evil parasites that want to break up our perfect confederation, but rather because they want to negotiate a new understanding of Quebec in Canada. If that fails, which it has in the past, the referendum will be back on the table.

Let me say that I'm a soft federalist (yes, that's totally a thing.) I'd love for Quebec to stay in Canada, but if the country is making policy decisions that consistently and expressively go against the wishes and will of a majority of Quebecker, then Quebec should have the opportunity to leave that relationship.

Because, really, the Rest-of-Canada solution is to just shut up and take it. They certainly wouldn't stand for Quebec trying to override the wishes of the rest of the country (e.g. stopping the Afghan war, opposing the Churchill Falls deal) – and sometimes that's for the best.

Somebody accused me recently of believing that Quebec has to leave Canada. I found that funny, and asked exactly what made him think Quebec has to stay?

But other provinces hold relatively more sway and are rarely faulteded for pursuing their own relational self interest, sometimes to the determent of the other provinces. Nobody resents Alberta for opposing the National Energy Plan. (Maybe understandably.)

When the Turmel story came out and the Joe McCarthys in the House of Commons and media went full-throttle in trying to run her over, I felt really uncomfortable.

Because I'm someone who likely would have voted for the Bloc before they had their clock cleaned by the NDP. I think it's disingenuous to do this knee-jerk hatchet job on the Bloc now, as though they're some sort of roaming gang of cannibals.

They're parliamentarians who have been around for a decade – agree with them or not, show at least enough respect so as not to condemn them to a public flogging just because you can. Fight them on policy, not ad hominum sovereigntist-baiting.

But it seems, bizarrely, as though the anti-Bloc vitriol is reserved only for the NDP. As though the Bloc itself is fine, but those New Democrats who used to be Bloquists are somehow worse. Hell, the Bloc probably leaked Turmel's membership documents.

I was also really disgusted by the media's attacks on Quebec Solidaire. As though they are the only separatists in the National Assembly. One Sun “journalist,” not content with merely emulating a Communist witch hunt, accused Turmel of being a dirty Marxist along with her friends in the mainstream media.

This outrage was not applied to Liberals and Conservatives who were Piquists. Hell, we've got a senator who helped found the Bloc Quebecois.

But no, Turmel is the double agent trying to break up the country.

Can we please just have this conversation with a bit of respect for the very smart people of Quebec who voted for the Bloc and Quebec Solidaire not because they're evil and stupid, but because they want what's best for their own province and their own people.

And can we have the conversation without having to boil everything down to “SEPARATISTS. UGH.”

Cooler heads have, here, not prevailed.