Robert Brym: Avi Lewis and Independent Jewish Voices are gaslighting Canadians about antisemitism

2026/01/06 Leave a comment

Needed dose of reality:

…Some white people use the N-word, despite the fact that doing so is deeply offensive to Black people. Black people are entitled to call such individuals racists. By the same token, anti-Zionists may think it’s legitimate to call for the destruction of the Jewish state in Israel. However, most Jews are entitled to call such people antisemites because, for them, support for the existence of the Jewish state is part of what it means to be a Jew.

Finally, based on the results of a 2024 survey, Lewis and Balsam assert that 49 per cent of Canada’s Jews are not Zionists. This claim is misleading. The poll found that 51 per cent of Canadian Jews consider themselves to be Zionists, 15 per cent express ambivalence about referring to themselves as Zionists, seven per cent say they “don’t know” and 27 per cent say they are not Zionists. However, the survey also found that 94 per cent of Canadian Jews support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

According to standard dictionaries and general encyclopedias, Zionists are people who support the existence of a Jewish state in the Jews’ ancestral homeland. Such supporters remain Zionists even if, like me, they favour the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state, oppose the extent of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, express outrage at Jewish settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and support equal rights for all citizens of Israel, including Arabs. 

What, then, does it mean when 94 per cent of Canadian Jews are Zionists by the dictionary definition yet 49 per cent of them decline to call themselves Zionists? 

I decided to find out by conducting a follow-up survey in 2025 asking the participants in the 2024 poll to clarify the matter. The follow-up revealed that many participants are reluctant to call themselves Zionists because the term has developed a strongly negative connotation, under the weight of frequent and often extreme attacks against everything connected to Israel in the media, schools, universities, workplaces and in the streets. 

Nearly all Canadian Jews are Zionists by the dictionary definition, but nearly half of them don’t want to be called Zionists because the term has become a pejorative. According to the poll, a mere one per cent of Canadian Jews say they are anti-Zionists like Lewis and Balsam.

It seems clear that Lewis and Balsam’s interpretations are guided by ideological animus. Antisemitism is a major problem in Canada. Rhetoric and actions denying the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state are antisemitic according to the great majority of Canadian Jews. With the exception of a tiny minority, including Lewis and Balsam, Canadian Jews remain steadfast in their support for a Jewish state in the Jews’ ancestral homeland.

Source: Robert Brym: Avi Lewis and Independent Jewish Voices are gaslighting Canadians about antisemitism

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ICYMI: L’Algérie réforme sa loi sur la citoyenneté dans la controverse

2026/01/06 Leave a comment

Of note, with likely impact on those of Algerian descent in Canada (about 90,000 according to the 2021 census):

Sous couvert d’une réforme visant à faire face aux « nouveaux défis sécuritaires », les élus algériens ont voté le 24 décembre dernier pour une modification de la loi sur la citoyenneté qui vise à faciliter la déchéance de nationalité de citoyens accusés de porter atteinte aux intérêts de l’État algérien.

La mesure est perçue comme une menace pour les diasporas algériennes partout dans le monde. Elles voient, dans la démarche, une nouvelle arme répressive ciblant une opposition et une dissidence au régime autoritaire du président Abdelmadjid Tebboune, forcées depuis plusieurs années de s’exprimer depuis l’étranger.

« Le message envoyé à la communauté internationale et aux opposants du régime en exil est d’une clarté brutale, a commenté un des membres de cette diaspora vivant au Royaume-Uni sur les réseaux sociaux cette semaine. [Cette mesure] est une preuve incontestable que toute opposition au régime militaire est assimilée à une opposition à l’État algérien lui-même, dans une confusion volontaire entre institutions de l’État et le régime. Elle est aussi la preuve que la seule opposition tolérée en Algérie est celle qui est contrôlée, encadrée ou neutralisée par le régime. »

Porté par le député Hicham Sifer du Rassemblement national démocratique, troisième parti en importance sur l’échiquier politique algérien, et formation proche de la présidence, l’amendement voté mercredi dernier par l’Assemblée populaire nationale élargit ainsi les motifs de révocation de la nationalité algérienne pour les citoyens binationaux. Elle inscrit désormais cette déchéance pour « atteinte à la sécurité ou à l’unité de l’État », « allégeance à une puissance étrangère », « fourniture de services à un État étranger dans l’intention de nuire aux intérêts nationaux », « assistance à des forces militaires étrangères » ou encore pour « participation, y compris financière ou propagandiste, à des organisations terroristes ou subversives à l’étranger ».

Le ministre algérien de la Justice, Lotfi Boudjemaa, a qualifié ce texte d’une « grande importance » en rappelant qu’il « vise à faire face à ceux qui, de l’extérieur du territoire national, veulent porter atteinte à la nation, manquant ainsi à leur devoir éthique et légal vis-à-vis de la mère patrie ».

Source: L’Algérie réforme sa loi sur la citoyenneté dans la controverse

Under the guise of a reform to face the “new security challenges”, Algerian elected officials voted on December 24 for an amendment to the citizenship law that aims to facilitate the deprivation of nationality of citizens accused of harming the interests of the Algerian State.

The measure is perceived as a threat to Algerian diasporas around the world. They see, in the approach, a new repressive weapon targeting opposition and dissent to the authoritarian regime of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, forced for several years to speak from abroad.

“The message sent to the international community and opponents of the regime in exile is of brutal clarity,” commented one of the members of this diaspora living in the United Kingdom on social networks this week. [This measure] is indisputable proof that any opposition to the military regime is assimilated to an opposition to the Algerian State itself, in a voluntary confusion between state institutions and the regime. It is also proof that the only opposition tolerated in Algeria is the one that is controlled, supervised or neutralized by the regime. ”

Carried by Deputy Hicham Sifer of the National Democratic Rally, the third largest party on the Algerian political chessboard, and a formation close to the presidency, the amendment voted last Wednesday by the National People’s Assembly thus expands the grounds for the revocation of Algerian nationality for binational citizens. It now registers this forfeiture for “undermining the security or unity of the State”, “allegiance to a foreign power”, “provision of services to a foreign State with the intention of harming national interests”, “assistance to foreign military forces” or for “participation, including financial or propaganda, in terrorist organizations or Subversive abroad”.

The Algerian Minister of Justice, Lotfi Boudjemaa, described this text as “of great importance” by recalling that it “aims to face those who, from outside the national territory, want to harm the nation, thus failing in their ethical and legal duty towards the motherland”.

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See attractions, get attracted: This is one way Canada is trying to help new immigrants decide to stay

2026/01/06 Leave a comment

More coverage for the latest “Leaky Bucket” report (catching up on the report issued last November, CBC only covered this week):

…Highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels, while those with doctorates are more than twice as likely to leave as those with a secondary education or less, according to the report.

But ICC research shows the antidote to the skilled immigrant exodus is a sense of belonging and optimism about life in Canada, the factor most closely tied to whether newcomers stay long term.

While financial struggles and concerns push many to leave, the data found that the strongest driver of immigrant retention is optimism about the future, measured by immigrants’ confidence in their personal and family prospects, plans for long-term residence in Canada and belief that friends and family can succeed here. 

Even a one per cent increase in optimism boosts the likelihood of staying by 28 per cent, according to ICC data.

“Immigration is a long game. It isn’t just about inviting people to come to Canada as immigrants,” said Shamira Madhany, managing director for World Education Services Canada. “What really matters is how included people feel and how inclusive the system is.”

The Canoo app, which aims to support and promote an early sense of connection among newcomers, has had more than 420,000 members since it was created in 2010. …

Source: See attractions, get attracted: This is one way Canada is trying to help new immigrants decide to stay

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«Migrations postcoloniales des Juifs du Maroc»: de Casablanca à Montréal, une mémoire en mouvement

2026/01/06 Leave a comment

Of interest and a reminder of the diversity within and among groups:

Ils sont partis dans l’urgence, parfois dans la peur, souvent sans les mots pour dire l’arrachement. À la sortie de la Shoah, dans le sillage immédiat de la création de l’État d’Israël en 1948 et tandis que l’empire colonial français se défait, près de 250 000 Juifs quittent le Maroc en l’espace de deux décennies. Longtemps réduit à une lecture strictement coloniale, cet exode révèle en réalité un espace migratoire bien plus complexe, façonné par des espoirs déçus, des discriminations persistantes et des décisions prises sous la contrainte des contextes politiques, sociaux et économiques.

Israël, la France, mais aussi le Québec s’imposent tour à tour comme les pôles de ces trajectoires fragmentées. Dans Migrations postcoloniales des Juifs du Maroc. Vers le Canada et la France, Yolande Cohen propose une synthèse majeure de ces parcours durablement relégués aux marges des récits officiels, en les replaçant dans le fil de l’histoire récente. « Il faut sortir d’une lecture simpliste des départs et comprendre que ces migrations s’inscrivent dans une vision beaucoup plus large et plurielle », explique l’historienne en entrevue téléphonique.

Professeure titulaire d’histoire contemporaine à Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Yolande Cohen voit dans cet ouvrage collectif, qu’elle a dirigé, un véritable aboutissement. Fruit de plus de dix ans de travail mené avec une équipe pluridisciplinaire, le livre marque un tournant dans son parcours. « Je suis sortie de l’aspect entièrement subjectif pour aller vers des subjectivités partagées », souligne-t-elle, insistant sur la richesse d’un regard construit à plusieurs voix.

Le livre rassemble ainsi une sélection de textes d’abord publiés dans des revues scientifiques, que l’historienne a souhaité rendre accessibles à un public plus large. L’ensemble s’attarde sur une dimension encore peu explorée de l’histoire singulière d’une diaspora, celle des Juifs marocains, souvent éclipsés par la visibilité des communautés ashkénazes, issues d’Europe centrale et orientale. Il met en lumière la diversité de ce groupe, sa réinvention au fil du temps et son profond enracinement au royaume chérifien. « La rupture avec le Maroc n’a jamais été une rupture affective », rappelle-t-elle, soulignant combien la marocanité demeure une composante intime de l’identité, transmise de génération en génération.

« Il faut sortir d’une lecture simpliste des départs et comprendre que ces migrations s’inscrivent dans une vision beaucoup plus large et plurielle. »

Parmi les apports majeurs de l’ouvrage figure le recours assumé aux témoignages et à l’histoire orale. Longtemps reléguée à la marge du champ universitaire, cette approche devient ici un outil central pour comprendre les migrations, en donnant accès aux récits de vie et aux perceptions que les archives administratives laissent dans l’ombre. « Sur des sujets où l’on étudie les perceptions, l’intersubjectivité est fondamentale », rappelle Yolande Cohen, attentive aux silences, aux hésitations et aux non-dits qui traversent la mémoire migrante.

La lecture postcoloniale irrigue l’ensemble des chapitres. Les départs massifs des Juifs marocains ne sauraient se réduire ni à un simple attrait pour l’Occident ni à un sionisme uniforme. Israël, destination majeure des premières vagues, fut aussi un espace de désillusion, marqué par de fortes discriminations envers les Juifs nord-africains. La France, pour sa part, refusa largement d’accorder la nationalité à cette population, révélant la persistance des hiérarchies héritées de l’ordre colonial. « Tout cela se savait », observe l’historienne. Dans ce contexte, le Québec s’impose comme une issue inattendue au sein de l’Amérique francophone.

Au Québec, la construction d’une identité sépharade

Dans les années 1960 et 1970, les Juifs marocains sont accueillis au Québec comme des réfugiés francophones. Le soutien logistique des institutions juives ashkénazes joue un rôle décisif, même si l’intégration n’est pas exempte de tensions. La question linguistique devient centrale. Alors que la communauté juive établie est majoritairement anglophone, les nouveaux arrivants revendiquent une insertion en français, dans le contexte de l’éveil du nationalisme québécois. « De cette friction naissent la Communauté sépharade du Québec puis l’école Maïmonide, la seule école juive francophone en Amérique du Nord », souligne Yolande Cohen. Un moment structurant pour la consolidation d’une minorité juive francophone.

L’essai s’articule autour de la notion de « champ migratoire », qui rompt avec une vision figée de l’immigration. Les trajectoires ne suivent pas une ligne droite, mais dessinent un espace de circulations constantes entre le Maroc, Israël, la France et le Québec. « Il y en a beaucoup qui viennent d’Israël, ils sont passés par là, ont été déçus et viennent ensuite au Québec », note l’historienne. Cette logique de déplacements successifs traverse d’ailleurs aussi son propre parcours.

Née en 1950 à Aubagne, près de Marseille, Yolande Cohen n’y passe que ses trois premières années. Elle découvrira bien plus tard qu’elle avait vécu dans un camp de transit, où séjournaient des Juifs marocains en attente d’un départ vers Israël. La guerre qui éclate dans le jeune État hébreu pousse ses parents à renoncer à ce projet et à retourner au Maroc, où elle grandit. Étudiante à Paris, elle rejoint finalement ses parents à Montréal en 1976, après leur immigration au Canada.

Source: «Migrations postcoloniales des Juifs du Maroc»: de Casablanca à Montréal, une mémoire en mouvement

They left in a hurry, sometimes in fear, often without the words to say the tearing. At the end of the Shoah, in the immediate wake of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and while the French colonial empire was defeated, nearly 250,000 Jews left Morocco in the space of two decades. Long reduced to a strictly colonial reading, this exodus actually reveals a much more complex migratory space, shaped by disappointed hopes, persistent discrimination and decisions made under the constraint of political, social and economic contexts.

Israel, France, but also Quebec are in turn emerging as the poles of these fragmented trajectories. In Postcolonial Migrations of the Jews of Morocco. Towards Canada and France, Yolande Cohen offers a major synthesis of these paths permanently relegated to the margins of official narratives, placing them in the thread of recent history. “We must get out of a simplistic reading of departures and understand that these migrations are part of a much broader and plural vision,” explains the historian in a telephone interview.

A full professor of contemporary history at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Yolande Cohen sees in this collective work, which she directed, a real achievement. The result of more than ten years of work with a multidisciplinary team, the book marks a turning point in its career. “I left the entirely subjective aspect to move towards shared subjectivity,” she emphasizes, insisting on the richness of a look built by several voices.

The book thus brings together a selection of texts first published in scientific journals, which the historian wanted to make accessible to a wider audience. The whole dwells on a still little explored dimension of the singular history of a diaspora, that of Moroccan Jews, often overshadowed by the visibility of Ashkenazi communities, from Central and Eastern Europe. It highlights the diversity of this group, its reinvention over time and its deep roots in the Cherifian kingdom. “The break with Morocco has never been an emotional break,” she recalls, stressing how Moroccanness remains an intimate component of identity, transmitted from generation to generation.

“We must get out of a simplistic reading of departures and understand that these migrations are part of a much broader and plural vision. ”

Among the major contributions of the book is the assumed use of testimonies and oral history. Long relegated to the margins of the university field, this approach is becoming here a central tool for understanding migrations, by giving access to life stories and perceptions that administrative archives leave in the shadows. “On subjects where perceptions are studied, intersubjectivity is fundamental,” recalls Yolande Cohen, attentive to the silences, hesitations and unsaid things that cross the migrant memory.

Postcolonial reading irrigates all chapters. The massive departures of Moroccan Jews cannot be reduced to a simple attraction to the West or to a uniform Sionism. Israel, a major destination of the first waves, was also a space of disillusionment, marked by strong discrimination against North African Jews. France, for its part, largely refused to grant nationality to this population, revealing the persistence of the hierarchies inherited from the colonial order. “All this was known,” observes the historian. In this context, Quebec has emerged as an unexpected outcome in French-speaking America.

In Quebec, the construction of a Sepharmic identity

In the 1960s and 1970s, Moroccan Jews were welcomed in Quebec as French-speaking refugees. The logistical support of Ashkenazi Jewish institutions plays a decisive role, even if integration is not free of tension. The linguistic question becomes central. While the established Jewish community is predominantly English-speaking, newcomers are demanding integration in French, in the context of the awakening of Quebec nationalism. “From this friction were born the Sepharic Community of Quebec and then the Maimonides school, the only French-speaking Jewish school in North America,” says Yolande Cohen. A structuring moment for the consolidation of a Francophone Jewish minority.

The essay revolves around the notion of “migration field”, which breaks with a fixed vision of immigration. The trajectories do not follow a straight line, but draw a space of constant traffic between Morocco, Israel, France and Quebec. “There are many who come from Israel, they have been there, have been disappointed and then come to Quebec,” notes the historian. This logic of successive movements also crosses its own path.

Born in 1950 in Aubagne, near Marseille, Yolande Cohen spent only her first three years there. She would discover much later that she had lived in a transit camp, where Moroccan Jews were staying waiting for a departure to Israel. The war that broke out in the young Hebrew state pushed her parents to give up this project and return to Morocco, where she grew up. A student in Paris, she finally joined her parents in Montreal in 1976, after their immigration to Canada.

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ICYMI: Ontario judge sets aside pharmacist’s Canadian citizenship revocation over alleged fraud

2026/01/06 Leave a comment

Of note, justice delayed is justice denied. Justice Go has an activist background, previously she was director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic:

An immigrant pharmacist whose Canadian citizenship was revoked in November 2024, a decade after officials first suspected she hadn’t met the requirements, has seen that decision set aside and revocation proceedings permanently stayed by a Federal Court judge who criticized officials for waiting so long to act on the allegations of “false representation, fraud, or knowingly concealing material circumstances.”

Nermine Magdi Ibrahim, who became a Canadian permanent resident in July 2003 and subsequently a Canadian citizen in October 2007, applied to the Federal Court for a judicial review of the revocation proceedings.

Immigration officials were not “concerned about the impact of the delay on (Ibrahim’s) ability to defend her case, nor (her) well-established ties to Canada as reasons for granting her special relief,” Justice Avvy Yao-Yao Go wrote in a recent decision out of Toronto.

“In short, the unfairness with which the applicant was treated, coupled with the unfairness in the proceedings caused by the delay, calls into question the integrity of the justice system if the court allows the proceedings to continue under these circumstances.”

In her citizenship application, Ibrahim “declared 166 days of absences from Canada during her relevant residency period from July 9, 2003 to February 18, 2007,” Go said.

Ibrahim’s “citizenship was initially flagged for investigation in 2014, and the investigation was completed in that same year,” said the judge.

The Canada Border Services Agency had “received a tip about companies operating citizenship fraud schemes with (Ibrahim’s) husband’s name appearing as one of the clients who used these services to simulate his residence in Canada,” said the Federal Court decision, dated Dec. 19.

The CBSA referred this information to the immigration minister at the time for further investigation.

“During its investigation, the case management branch … found (Ibrahim’s) LinkedIn profile which suggested that she was continuously employed as a Medical Delegate with Nestlé Infant Nutrition in Kuwait from June 2002 to June 2009,” Go said.

“On July 23, 2014, an analyst of the Immigration Section at the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates verified her continuous employment with the employer.”

It wasn’t until 2023 when Canadian immigration authorities advised Ibrahim of the potential revocation proceedings and offered her an opportunity to respond.

They argued “that the delay was not unreasonable considering this case was part of a large-scale investigation involving 300 other individuals,” said the decision.

The judge wasn’t buying it: “Based on the record before me, I find that the minister has not provided any justification for the delay,” Go said.

To become a Canadian citizen, permanent residents need to have lived in have lived in Canada for three out of the last five years.

In September 2023, immigration officials wrote to Ibrahim indicating she “may have misrepresented herself during the citizenship process and that (she) may have failed to disclose some of her absences from Canada during the four years immediately before the date of her citizenship application,” said the decision.

She was given 30 days “to make written submissions regarding the length of time she spent in Canada before acquiring citizenship and her ties to Canada since becoming a citizen,” it said.

Ibrahim responded on Sept. 21, 2023, with a one-page letter requesting “more details about alleged absences and stated that she has integrated well into Canadian society as shown in her successfully becoming licensed as a pharmacist, being a partner of two pharmacies, and owning property,” said the decision

“She also argued that the revocation would result in severe hardship and added that all her points can be substantiated with supporting documents upon request.”

On May 9, 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) notified Ibrahim it was revoking her citizenship.

“The notification letter cited (Ibrahim’s) LinkedIn profile listing her employment with Nestlé in Kuwait, the Canadian Embassy’s verification with Nestlé’s Human Resource Department of (her) continuous employment from July 2002 to June 2009, and (her) failure to disclose this information as basis for alleging that (she) may have obtained citizenship by misrepresentation.”

Ibrahim responded on July 4, 2024, indicating “that her LinkedIn Profile is not of a factual nature and does not include any leaves taken.”

She “also explained that she was pregnant with her daughter during the relevant period, and that Nestlé had a relatively flexible maternity leave policy that enabled her to stay in Canada for the duration of her pregnancy and throughout the breastfeeding period until her daughter was two years old.”

Ibrahim “noted it has been over 15 years since the relevant period has elapsed,” said the decision.

She “emphasized that it was not only a matter of intellectual recollection, but of documentary recollection.”

Ibrahim “noted the steps she undertook to obtain information from various institutions including the pharmaceutical company she worked for, her bank and her phone company, but was unable to produce records longer than seven years prior due to these institutions’ policy on record retention,” said the decision.

Ibrahim “submitted supporting documentation, including her daughter’s Ontario birth certificate, her Ontario and Manitoba pharmacist licences, document of prior property ownership, an Ontario Profile Report for the two pharmacies she is a partner in, copies of her driver’s licences containing a residential address in Ontario, as well as her and her daughter’s hospital cards containing the same address.”

Ibrahim also “provided copies of Nestlé’s policies regarding maternity and parental support from 2012 to 2019.”

She argued “that the evidentiary burden in revocation cases rests with the minister who asserts that there was a misrepresentation.”

Source: Ontario judge sets aside pharmacist’s Canadian citizenship revocation over alleged fraud

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A look at the workings of Canada’s immigration system — through the eyes of a longtime insider

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Kudos to Cochrane for writing about his experiences and the impact of large numbers and paper processing:

…“When I worked there, you would give people your business card and you would meet with them face to face,” said Cochrane, who retired from public service in 2015.

“I realized today people don’t even know the name of the officer and they’ll surely never meet the officer,” the first-time published author told the Star.

During his time at the Immigration Department, between 1982 and 2005, the number of new permanent residents Canada welcomed each year almost tripled as public support for immigration grew, unlike what has been seen in the past couple of years.

Officials have moved from meeting clients and the public in person to interacting with applicants via mail-in documents — and now through online portals and webforms. Application processing has turned into factory-like production, boiling down to box-checking.

With the insatiable demand for migration to Canada and a push to digitalize operations, the “depersonalization” of the Immigration Department may be inevitable. But Cochrane said human connection plays a key role in immigration matters, given that any decision made could have far-reaching impacts on people’s lives and a country that’s built on immigration.

It’s through those face-to-face encounters that skilled officers can properly communicate with applicants, assess the genuineness of an application and guide it through the system, he added….

Source: A look at the workings of Canada’s immigration system — through the eyes of a longtime insider

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Immigration department halts skilled refugee jobs program, leaving employers in limbo

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Another example of the impact of the changes, resulting from previous efforts to ramp up numbers:

…November’s immigration levels plan set out the number of permanent and temporary residents the government plans to accept over the next three years. The plan included specific targets for economic immigration pilots, including the EMPP and another for caregivers. 

The government aims to offer 8,175 permanent-residence places through such economic pilots in 2026, and 8,775 in each of the following two years.

Dana Wagner, co-founder of TalentLift, a non-profit international recruitment company that links displaced people with businesses, said being told about the imminent pausing of the program in a letter two days before Christmas was “very disappointing.” 

“The program has been working extremely well. But this is a signal that the EMPP is not being treated like a serious economic program or a vehicle for talent attraction. You shouldn’t leave employers such little runway to plan and pivot,” she said. 

“Sending a letter right before Christmas when the government signs off for the holiday is an awful way to communicate such a major change at the 11th hour.” 

Several employers that have already offered jobs to displaced people abroad were planning to submit their paperwork to IRCC in January, Ms. Wagner said.

She said those employers include an auto body collision repair company in British Columbia. It has offered a job to an experienced technician from Venezuela living as a refugee in Ecuador, to fill a local shortage.

IRCC delays in processing applications have been “ballooning” and now can take up to 17 months, Ms. Wagner said. Many employers are still waiting for skilled refugees they have hired to arrive in Canada. …

Source: Immigration department halts skilled refugee jobs program, leaving employers in limbo

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Adams and Parkin: Will 2025 be remembered as the year Canadians re-embraced nationalism?

2026/01/05 2 Comments

Good reflections:

…All of these flavours of nationalism that shaped events in Canada in 2025 will continue to swirl around us in 2026. We will wave the flags and sing the anthem and cheer on the athletes at the Winter Olympic Games – and sit on the edges of our seats as the men’s and women’s hockey teams play the Americans for gold. We will find comfort in our denouncements of Trump’s distasteful America-first rhetoric while reducing our own intake of immigrants and cutting back on our foreign-aid spending. We will see how much prosperity “Buy Canadian” policies will bring us. We will be challenged by Quebec nationalists to explain why Canada’s quest for independence is so much more noble. We will be equally challenged by First Nations to account for which nations stand to benefit from new “nation-building” resource projects. 

All of this is as it should be. We are and always will be a deeply multicultural society and federated country, hanging on next to an aggressive and sometimes expansionist United States. Our various expressions of nationalism will keep tying us up in knots, and for that we should be thankful. Canadians are better off when we are not only humble, but exasperated by the need to keep justifying and rethinking the terms of our own existence. There is no shame in having only enough national pride to get by. And struggling to reconcile seemingly irreconcilable claims to rights and status is what genuine democracies do. This ongoing soul-searching is our true national sport, the one at which we can be shyly confident of outperforming all others – though with luck we will take home ample gold from Milano Cortina as well.

Source: Will 2025 be remembered as the year Canadians re-embraced nationalism?

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Polgreen: One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt [#immigration]

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Good critique of Trump’s National Security Strategy view on immigration:

…Arguments in favor of migration tend to focus either on its economic benefits or its moral claim on the American psyche. But from the nation’s founding these two have been intertwined in ways both productive and confounding. Over the past year, as I’ve written about migration across the globe, I have often asked opponents of migration whether they would prefer to live in a country people flee from or flee toward. The answer, invariably, is the latter. The recent surge in support for immigration reflects, I suspect, that America’s status as the destination of choice for the world’s best minds is an intense source of pride.

It is also a source of strength. Trump clearly prefers the menacing snarl of hard power, but America’s openness to the world’s most ambitious people — and its unique ability to absorb and make use of human talent — has perhaps been its most potent form of soft power. Why try to defeat the world’s richest country when you might have the chance to join it and reap its ample rewards?

That is not the Trump administration’s way of thinking. For all the talk about abolishing D.E.I. in favor of merit, it seems to believe that for Americans to compete with the best of the world, merit must be redefined in nationalist terms, if not entirely set aside. Its National Security Strategy said so explicitly.

“Should merit be smothered, America’s historic advantages in science, technology, industry, defense and innovation will evaporate,” the document states. However, it continues, “we cannot allow meritocracy to be used as a justification to open America’s labor market to the world in the name of finding ‘global talent’ that undercuts American workers.” Trumpism seems to be seeking a form of talent autarky.

This is a radical change, and one that will surely leave the United States poorer, weaker and more isolated. I cannot help but detect in these nativist outbursts against Indian immigrants and their descendants a profound loss of confidence. The protesters repulsed by the towering Hanuman statue saw it as a threat to their culture, religion and traditions. But to me, that glittering hulk of alloyed metal symbolizes something else: the enduring magnetism of America’s promise, tarnished though it may be.

Source: One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt

Filed under Immigration, Trump administration Tagged with ,

Le Devoir Éditorial | Bouchard-Taylor, un legs ignoré

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Good editorial:

À l’hiver 2007, le Québec semblait littéralement au bord de la rupture. Une série d’incidents impliquant des accommodements religieux enflammaient le débat public. L’installation de vitres givrées au YMCA d’Outremont, un jugement de la Cour suprême autorisant le port du kirpan à l’école, le code de vie de la municipalité d’Hérouxville destiné aux immigrants : les manchettes s’enchaînaient, nourrissant une perception de crise identitaire. Dans ce climat d’anxiété collective, le premier ministre Jean Charest annonçait, le 8 février 2007, la création de la Commission de consultation sur les pratiques d’accommodement reliées aux différences culturelles, confiée à deux éminences : le sociologue Gérard Bouchard et le philosophe Charles Taylor.

M. Charest en appelait alors à une réflexion sensée. « Il est clair que le débat s’enlise et qu’il sert la division plus que la compréhension », rappelait-il au moment de propulser Bouchard-Taylor. Pendant des semaines, les deux commissaires ont sillonné le Québec, permettant à quelque 3400 personnes de participer aux audiences publiques qui faisaient souvent salle comble. Cette vaste consultation populaire a permis de prendre le pouls d’une société profondément divisée sur la question de son identité et de sa relation avec les minorités religieuses. Certains témoignages étaient empreints de préjugés et de peurs irrationnelles, d’autres exprimaient un désir sincère de préserver les acquis de la Révolution tranquille. L’exercice démocratique a été aussi cathartique qu’éprouvant.

Dans leur rapport final, Fonder l’avenir. Le temps de la conciliation, les deux commissaires arrivent à un constat aussi cinglant que libérateur : non, il n’y avait pas de véritable crise des accommodements raisonnables au Québec, et ce, malgré les apparences. Ce que les médias avaient présenté comme une avalanche de demandes déraisonnables formulées au nom de la liberté de religion relevait largement de la distorsion des faits. La commission Bouchard-Taylor conclut que, parmi les cas les plus médiatisés, 71 % s’éloignaient de l’exactitude des faits. L’emballement médiatique avait considérablement enflé la « crise ».

Les commissaires décèlent derrière cette enflure un malaise identitaire dont souffrent plus particulièrement les Québécois d’ascendance canadienne-française. Ceux-ci vivent difficilement leur double statut de majoritaire au Québec mais de minoritaire en Amérique du Nord, et craignent peut-être d’être submergés par les minorités culturelles et d’être dépossédés de leurs valeurs communes. La crise des accommodements camoufle donc une réaction de défense de plusieurs Québécois inquiets de perdre leur identité culturelle.

Le rapport Bouchard-Taylor propose une voie médiane fondée sur l’interculturalisme québécois, un modèle distinct du multiculturalisme canadien et de la laïcité fermée à la française. Les commissaires recommandent notamment d’interdire le port de signes religieux uniquement aux personnes en position d’autorité coercitive — juges, policiers, gardiens de prison, procureurs de la Couronne — tout en permettant leur port ailleurs dans la fonction publique, y compris pour les enseignants. Cette approche visait à équilibrer la neutralité de l’État avec le respect des libertés individuelles. La formule n’est pas retenue.

Sous la gouverne du Parti québécois, le Québec adopte en 2013 la Charte des valeurs, qui propose d’aller plus loin que les recommandations de Bouchard-Taylor. La nation n’en a pas fini de ses crispations identitaires, car le Québec s’entre-déchire autour de cette charte. En 2019, la Coalition avenir Québec présente enfin le projet de loi 21 sur la laïcité de l’État. Sur le modèle de la Charte des valeurs, on y interdit le port de signes religieux aux personnes en position d’autorité, y compris les enseignants du primaire et du secondaire. La loi fait l’objet de vives contestations.

L’adoption de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État marque l’aboutissement d’un processus qui a pris le chemin inverse de celui tracé par Bouchard et Taylor. Là où le rapport de 2008 appelait à la conciliation, à la nuance et au dialogue, le Québec a opté pour une solution législative plus rigide qui, si elle répond aux inquiétudes d’une majorité, pose des questions profondes sur notre capacité collective à vivre ensemble dans le respect de nos différences et force la mise à l’écart de certains groupes.

Le véritable héritage de Bouchard et de Taylor réside dans la démarche qu’ils ont incarnée. À un moment où le Québec aurait pu basculer dans l’intolérance et la xénophobie pure, ils ont rappelé l’importance de l’analyse rigoureuse, de l’écoute et du dialogue. Ils ont démontré que les perceptions pouvaient différer radicalement de la réalité et que les débats identitaires devaient être menés avec intelligence et compassion. Dix-huit ans après leur nomination, Bouchard et Taylor nous rappellent qu’une société mature ne se construit pas sur la peur de l’autre, mais sur la capacité à dialoguer, à comprendre et à chercher des solutions qui honorent à la fois les valeurs collectives et les droits individuels.

Source: Éditorial | Bouchard-Taylor, un legs ignoré

In the winter of 2007, Quebec seemed literally on the verge of rupture. A series of incidents involving religious accommodations inflamed the public debate. The installation of frosted windows at the YMCA of Outremont, a Supreme Court judgment authorizing the wearing of the kirpan at school, the code of life of the municipality of Hérouxville for immigrants: the headlines followed one another, feeding a perception of identity crisis. In this climate of collective anxiety, Prime Minister Jean Charest announced, on February 8, 2007, the creation of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences, entrusted to two eminences: Sociologist Gérard Bouchard and Philosopher Charles Taylor.

Mr. Charest then called for a sensible reflection. “It is clear that the debate is getting bogged down and that it serves division more than understanding,” he recalled when propelling Bouchard-Taylor. For weeks, the two commissioners crisscrossed Quebec, allowing some 3,400 people to participate in public hearings that were often a fulle. This broad popular consultation made it possible to take the pulse of a deeply divided society on the question of its identity and its relationship with religious minorities. Some testimonies were imbued with prejudices and irrational fears, others expressed a sincere desire to preserve the achievements of the Quiet Revolution. The democratic exercise was as cathartic as it was trying.

In their final report, Founding the Future. At the time of conciliation, the two commissioners came to an observation as scathing as it was liberating: no, there was no real crisis of reasonable accommodation in Quebec, despite appearances. What the media had presented as an avalanche of unreasonable demands made in the name of freedom of religion was largely a matter of distortion of the facts. The Bouchard-Taylor Commission concludes that, among the most publicized cases, 71% were far from the accuracy of the facts. The media runaway had considerably inflated the “crisis”.

The commissioners detect behind this swelling an identity malaise suffered more particularly by Quebecers of Canadian-French descent. They hardly live their dual status as a majority in Quebec but as a minority in North America, and perhaps fear being overwhelmed by cultural minorities and being dispossessed of their common values. The accommodation crisis therefore camouflages a defensive reaction of many Quebecers worried about losing their cultural identity.

The Bouchard-Taylor report proposes a middle path based on Quebec interculturalism, a model distinct from Canadian multiculturalism and French-style secularism. The commissioners recommend in particular that the wearing of religious signs be prohibited only to persons in a position of coercive authority – judges, police officers, prison guards, Crown prosecutors – while allowing their wearing elsewhere in the public service, including for teachers. This approach aimed to balance the neutrality of the State with respect for individual freedoms. The formula is not retained.

Under the leadership of the Parti Québécois, Quebec adopted the Charter of Values in 2013, which proposed to go further than the recommendations of Bouchard-Taylor. The nation has not finished its identity tensions, because Quebec is torn around this charter. In 2019, the Coalition avenir Québec finally presented Bill 21 on the secularism of the state. On the model of the Charter of Values, it prohibits the wearing of religious signs to people in positions of authority, including primary and secondary school teachers. The law is the subject of strong challenges.

The adoption of the State Secularism Act marked the culmination of a process that took the opposite path from that traced by Bouchard and Taylor. Where the 2008 report called for conciliation, nuance and dialogue, Quebec has opted for a more rigid legislative solution that, if it responds to the concerns of a majority, raises deep questions about our collective ability to live together with respect for our differences and forces the exclusion of certain groups.

The true legacy of Bouchard and Taylor lies in the approach they embodied. At a time when Quebec could have turned into intolerance and pure xenophobia, they recalled the importance of rigorous analysis, listening and dialogue. They demonstrated that perceptions could differ radically from reality and that identity debates should be conducted with intelligence and compassion. Eighteen years after their appointment, Bouchard and Taylor remind us that a mature society is not built on the fear of the other, but on the ability to dialogue, understand and seek solutions that honor both collective values and individual rights.

From Bouchard lui-même: Quand l’espoir vient des citoyens

« En haut, en haut ! C’est un grand concept sociologique sophistiqué, ça, en haut ! », s’exclame-t-il d’un ton faussement bourru. Me sentant désarçonné au bout du fil, il éclate d’un grand rire.

Le ton est donné : interviewer Gérard Bouchard sera tout sauf ennuyant. Ce monument de l’histoire et de la sociologie a codirigé la fameuse commission Bouchard-Taylor sur les accommodements raisonnables, a enseigné à Harvard, a écrit de nombreux ouvrages. Et à 81 ans, le sociologue chéri des Québécois est vif, drôle, versant autant dans l’autodérision que dans les critiques acerbes.

Des critiques qu’il dirige beaucoup vers le gouvernement du Québec actuellement. C’est là, « en haut », qu’il déplore les plus grandes dérives. Mon intention n’était pas nécessairement d’amener mon interlocuteur dans l’arène politique, mais il y a sauté lui-même à pieds joints.

Lorsque je lui demande ce qu’il souhaite collectivement aux Québécois pour 2026, sa réponse est immédiate.

« Je souhaiterais que tout le débat sur l’identitaire perde enfin de l’actualité. L’identitaire est un sac vide. Cette affaire-là ne va nulle part. C’est un débat qui divise, mais qui n’ouvre pas sur grand-chose. »

— Gérard Bouchard

Il enchaîne en dénonçant la désinvolture avec laquelle, selon lui, le gouvernement Legault écarte les droits fondamentaux pour imposer sa vision de la laïcité.

« Ça relève d’un sentiment antireligieux, je ne vois pas autre chose, dit-il. L’idée qu’une société, pour être laïque, doit repousser le religieux dans ses derniers retranchements pour qu’il ne soit finalement plus visible du tout… Ce n’est pas un idéal pour une société, ça ! Ou alors, si c’est un idéal, ça en est un qui repose essentiellement sur la violation d’un droit fondamental. »

« On vit encore sur cette espèce de revanche que l’on prend contre les abus du clergé que notre société a subis jusqu’au milieu du XXe siècle, analyse-t-il. On avait de sacrées bonnes raisons de le faire, on a beaucoup souffert. Mais là, il faudrait en finir avec ça. On ne va quand même pas vivre sur ce ressentiment de génération en génération ! »…

“Up, up! It’s a great sophisticated sociological concept, that, at the top! “, he exclaims in a falsely gruff tone. Feeling distraught at the end of the line, he bursts out laughing.

The tone is set: interviewing Gérard Bouchard will be anything but boring. This monument of history and sociology co-led the famous Bouchard-Taylor Commission on Reasonable Accommodations, taught at Harvard, wrote many books. And at 81, the beloved sociologist of Quebecers is lively, funny, pouring as much into self-deprecation as in harsh criticism.

Criticisms that he directs a lot towards the Quebec government currently. It is there, “at the top”, that he deplores the greatest drifts. My intention was not necessarily to bring my interlocutor into the political arena, but he jumped there himself with his feet together.

When I ask him what he collectively wishes for Quebecers for 2026, his answer is immediate.

“I would like the whole debate on identity to finally lose news. The identity is an empty bag. This case is not going anywhere. It is a debate that divides, but does not open up much. ”

— Gérard Bouchard

He continues by denouncing the casualness with which, according to him, the Legault government discards fundamental rights to impose its vision of secularism.

“It’s an anti-religious feeling, I don’t see anything else,” he says. The idea that a society, to be secular, must push the religious to his last entrenchments so that he is finally no longer visible at all… This is not an ideal for a society! Or, if it is an ideal, it is one that is essentially based on the violation of a fundamental right. ”

“We still live on this kind of revenge that we take against the abuse of the clergy that our society suffered until the middle of the 20th century,” he analyzes. We had damn good reasons to do it, we suffered a lot. But now, we should end this. We are still not going to live on this resentment from generation to generation! “…

Filed under Interculturalisme, Laïcité, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

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