Immigration: Vers une campagne électorale agitée

2026/02/17 Leave a comment

Not going to be a “vivre ensemble” campaign:

…Mais surtout, politiquement, le chef du PQ risque de se retrouver du mauvais côté du débat public. Vendredi, les porte-parole de plus d’une vingtaine d’organismes de la société civile, des municipalités aux syndicats en passant par les employeurs, les institutions d’enseignement et les producteurs agricoles, ont tenu une conférence de presse.

Tous demandent la même chose. Qu’on ne renvoie pas ailleurs dans le monde des immigrants que le Québec a choisis : des francophones, déjà établis, bien intégrés, et qui, le plus souvent, ont des compétences recherchées, ici et maintenant.

En fait, si certains de nos politiciens font le mauvais choix, c’est beaucoup à cause de vieux réflexes populistes qui sont aujourd’hui dépassés. Ils ont encore de vieilles croyances et voient les immigrants comme des « voleurs de jobs ».

Mais tant les pénuries de main-d’œuvre que le vieillissement de la population sont des phénomènes qu’on ne peut plus ignorer. Il faut aussi dire que certaines perceptions ont beaucoup changé depuis la pandémie, quand notre système de santé a été tenu à bout de bras par ceux qu’on a appelés nos « anges gardiens ».

Par ailleurs, même la question du danger pour l’avenir du français tient de moins en moins la route. Aujourd’hui, parmi les immigrants que le Québec a choisis, ils sont plus de 80 % à parler français avant même d’arriver chez nous.

Alors pourquoi deux de nos partis politiques, la CAQ et le PQ, s’enferment-ils encore dans un discours aussi inquiet – quand ce n’est pas carrément hostile – envers l’immigration ?

Mauvais instincts de la part de la CAQ, certainement. D’ailleurs, le premier ministre a un discours nettement différent de celui de ses collègues plus jeunes. Chose certaine, il n’y a plus personne pour reprendre le mantra de la CAQ quand elle est arrivée au pouvoir : « En prendre moins, mais en prendre soin ».

Au PQ, on choisit plutôt les experts ou les conseillers qui disent ce que l’on veut entendre, en particulier sur la crise du logement, que l’on attribue presque exclusivement à l’immigration.

Mais c’est faire exception de nouveaux phénomènes comme les « rénovictions », les logements offerts sur des plateformes comme Airbnb et la mauvaise performance historique du Québec quant à la construction de nouveaux logements, surtout quand on le compare au reste du Canada.

Rien de tout cela n’annonce une campagne électorale positive sur un enjeu comme l’immigration, qui exige précisément qu’on en discute dans une certaine sérénité.

Source: Immigration: Vers une campagne électorale agitée

… But above all, politically, the leader of the PQ may find himself on the wrong side of the public debate. On Friday, spokespersons for more than twenty civil society organizations, from municipalities to unions to employers, educational institutions and agricultural producers, held a press conference.

They all ask for the same thing. That we do not send elsewhere in the world of immigrants that Quebec has chosen: Francophones, already established, well integrated, and who, most often, have skills sought after, here and now.

In fact, if some of our politicians make the wrong choice, it is much because of old populist reflexes that are now outdated. They still have old beliefs and see immigrants as “job thieves”.

But both labor shortages and an aging population are phenomena that can no longer be ignored. It must also be said that some perceptions have changed a lot since the pandemic, when our health system was held at arm’s length by those we called our “guardian angels”.

Moreover, even the question of the danger to the future of the Frenchman holds less and less. Today, among the immigrants that Quebec has chosen, more than 80% speak French before they even arrive at home.

So why do two of our political parties, the CAQ and the PQ, still lock themselves in such a worried speech – when it is not downright hostile – towards immigration?

Bad instincts on the part of the CAQ, certainly. Moreover, the Prime Minister has a very different speech from that of his younger colleagues. One thing is certain, there is no one left to take up the mantra of the CAQ when it came to power: “Take less, but take care of it”.

In the PQ, we choose instead the experts or advisors who say what we want to hear, especially on the housing crisis, which is attributed almost exclusively to immigration.

But this is an exception to new phenomena such as “renovations”, housing offered on platforms such as Airbnb and Quebec’s poor historical performance in the construction of new housing, especially when compared to the rest of Canada.

None of this announces a positive election campaign on an issue such as immigration, which precisely requires that it be discussed with a certain serenity.

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

People from African, Caribbean countries face harsher treatment by immigration system, study finds

2026/02/17 Leave a comment

Think this study needs more context in understanding the differences as some of this may reflect valid risk factors:

…CBSA data cited in the report and obtained by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch under freedom-of-information laws show that in 2019, the majority of detainees held for a month or longer were from African and Caribbean countries. 

Publicly available data from the CBSA and the Immigration and Refugee Board indicate that the overall number of people held in immigration detention, as well as the length of their detention, has declined in recent years: the vast majority of detainees are released within 30 days, the study notes.

However, over the past decade, nearly 60,000 people – including hundreds of children – have been placed in immigration detention, the study’s analysis of Canada Border Services Agency data found.

The CBSA can detain non-citizens, including permanent residents and foreign nationals, who are believed to be inadmissible to Canada. The factors the border agency considers include whether the person may pose a public-safety risk or is a possible flight risk.

Over that past decade, fewer than 10 per cent of immigration detainees were arrested because they were deemed a danger to the public or because of serious criminality, the data show. 

The same proportion were held because of questions about their identity documents or because a border agent needed more information to complete an immigration examination.

The vast majority – around 80 per cent – were held because border agents deemed them unlikely to appear at future immigration proceedings. 

Source: People from African, Caribbean countries face harsher treatment by immigration system, study finds

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Douglas Todd: Taiwanese-Canadians navigate ‘tricky’ relations with people from China

2026/02/16 Leave a comment

Interesting snippet:

…“At a domestic level in Canada, Liu said people from Taiwan and China rarely interact.

Many Taiwanese people attend giant Ling Yen Mountain Temple in Richmond, visible from Highway 99. The Canadian census says about 18 per cent of Taiwanese Canadians are Buddhist, 22 per cent are Christian, and 64 per cent are non-religious.

Even though there is next to no mingling at social, cultural or religious events in Canada, said Liu, people from China and Taiwan often engage through business.

For instance, Liu said the founder of the largest Asian grocery store chain in Canada, T&T Supermarket, is Cindy Lee, a Canadian resident born in Taiwan. Liu said many people from China shop at T&T Supermarket’s more than 38 stores. …

Source: “Douglas Todd: Taiwanese-Canadians navigate ‘tricky’ relations with people from China”

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

StatsCan Study: Portrait of the Chinese populations in Canada

2026/02/14 Leave a comment

Another interesting report:

A new in-depth analytical portrait released today explores the diversity of individuals in Canada who reported being Chinese in the census, including information on where they were born and live, their age, language, immigration characteristics, religion, education, job, income and experiences of social inclusion. It breaks down many characteristics by place of birth to provide a deeper understanding of the diversity of experiences and outcomes within Chinese populations.

This is the fourth in a series of portraits on racialized groups in Canada, developed by Statistics Canada in support of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. The previous portraits are The Diversity of the Black Populations in Canada, 2021: A Sociodemographic Portrait, Portrait of the Arab Populations in Canada: Diversity and Socioeconomic Outcomes and Portrait of the South Asian Populations in Canada: Diversity and Socioeconomic Outcomes.

The analysis in this release is based on the 2021 Census of Population, unless otherwise specified.

Nearly 5% of the Canadian population reports being Chinese

Chinese populations in Canada numbered 1.7 million people in 2021 and made up 4.7% of the total population of Canada. They were the second-largest racialized group in Canada after the South Asian populations. The size of the Chinese populations more than doubled from 1996 to 2021.

About half of Chinese populations in Canada were born in China

In 2021, about half of Chinese populations in Canada were born in China and about half were born in other places. More than one-quarter of Chinese populations were born in Canada, while other common places of birth were Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Taiwan. For Chinese individuals living in Canada who were born in Southeast Asia, Vietnam was the most common country of birth.

Among Chinese immigrants, places of birth differed by period of immigration. Among Chinese immigrants who immigrated to Canada during the period from 1970 to 1996, just over one-third (34.2%) were born in China, while the majority were born in Hong Kong (40.1%), Southeast Asia (13.0%) and Taiwan (7.1%). In contrast, 86.8% of Chinese immigrants who immigrated to Canada during the period from 1998 to 2021 were born in China.

Nearly two-thirds of the Chinese populations who immigrated to Canada from 1980 to 2021 are economic immigrants

Chinese immigrants who had immigrated to Canada since 1980 and were living in the country in 2021 were mainly either economic immigrants (64.9%) or sponsored by family (28.7%). However, among Chinese immigrants during this period who were born in Southeast Asia, 42.0% were economic immigrants while one-quarter (25.1%) were refugees.

More than two-thirds of individuals who report being Chinese live in Toronto and Vancouver 

Over two-thirds of the Chinese populations in Canada lived in the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Toronto (39.6%) and Vancouver (29.9%) in 2021. There were some variations by place of birth; for example, the majority (58.1%) of the Chinese populations in Canada who were born in Taiwan lived in Vancouver (Chart 2).

Chinese populations in Canada made up nearly one-fifth of the population of the CMA of Vancouver (19.6%) and just over one-tenth of the population of the CMA of Toronto (11.1%). Within the Vancouver CMA, the majority (54.3%) of the population in the census subdivision (CSD) (municipality) of Richmond was Chinese, as was one-third (33.3%) of the population in the CSD of Burnaby. Within the Toronto CMA, Chinese populations made up nearly half (47.9%) of the population in the CSD of Markham and just under one-third (31.9%) of the population in the CSD of Richmond Hill.

Over 70% of individuals in Canada who reported being Chinese have no religion or have secular perspectives, but this differs by place of birth

In 2021, the share of the Chinese populations who had no religion or had secular perspectives (71.7%) was more than twice as high as in the overall population of Canada (34.6%).

The share of the Chinese populations who had no religion or had secular perspectives was highest among those born in China (80.2%) or Canada (72.9%) and lowest among those born in Southeast Asia (44.9%) (Chart 3).

The most common religions among Chinese populations were Christianity (20.2%) and Buddhism (7.2%)….

Source: Study: Portrait of the Chinese populations in Canada

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

USA: Black Immigrant Population Diversifies Beyond its Historically Caribbean and Latin American Origins, New Fact Sheet Shows

2026/02/14 Leave a comment

As is the case in Canada with respect to Caribbean origins:

Long dominated by arrivals from the Caribbean, the Black immigrant population in the United States is now nearly evenly split between immigrants from Africa and those from Latin America and the Caribbean. This demographic shift has implications for communities, labor markets and immigration policy nationwide, a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) fact sheet notes. 

Drawing on analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the fact sheet finds that the Black immigrant population, which stood at nearly 4.7 million people as of 2024, has strong workforce participation and English language proficiency, as well as similar educational attainment as the U.S.-born and overall immigrant populations. Eighty-one percent of all Black immigrants have become U.S. citizens or are lawful permanent residents (green-card holders), with another 3 percent holding a long-term temporary visa. 

The fact sheet, A Profile of the Growing Black Immigrant Population in the United States, provides findings on population trends, top U.S. destinations, workforce participation, education, language skills, immigration status and household characteristics. 

Black immigrants account for 9 percent of all immigrants in the United States and 11 percent of the overall U.S. Black population (with the population covering anyone self-identifying as Black or African American, alone or in combination with any other race/ethnicity option in the Census survey). 

These immigrants are concentrated in a number of major metropolitan areas, including New York, Miami, Washington, DC and Atlanta. Caribbean immigrants are especially concentrated in New York and Florida, while African immigrants are more widely dispersed across states such as Texas, Minnesota, Ohio, Washington and Colorado. 

Nearly one in five Black children in the United States has at least one immigrant parent, and the vast majority of these children are U.S. citizens. Of Black immigrant children under 18 years old, about 6 out of 10 were born in Africa, reflecting the growing number arriving from Africa relative to those of Caribbean and Latin American origin. 

Among the fact sheet’s key findings: 

  • The 4,685,000 million Black immigrants in the country as of 2024 are almost evenly divided between origins in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. The top five origin countries are Jamaica, Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana. 
  • While Black immigrants represent just 9 percent of all immigrants nationwide, they have higher concentrations in a number of states, representing 29 percent of all immigrants in North Dakota, 28 percent in Minnesota, 25 percent in Maryland, 24 percent in the District of Columbia and 23 percent in Delaware.   
  • In certain metro areas—Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle and Hartford—Black immigrants represent at least one-quarter of all Black residents. 
  • Employment rates for Black immigrant men (72 percent) and women (65 percent) exceed those of U.S.-born workers (62 percent for men and 56 percent for women), with many employed in sectors central to the U.S. economy, including health care, transportation and professional services. Black immigrant women are especially concentrated in health-care occupations, with 36 percent working in that sector, while transportation is the leading sector for men (employing 17 percent). 
  • Indicators point to strong integration and societal outcomes. About one-third of Black immigrants hold a university degree (36 percent of men and 33 percent of women, similar to the U.S.-born and overall immigrant populations), and most speak English proficiently, with a much higher share speaking English at home than among immigrants overall. Black immigrants are also more likely to be married than the U.S. born. 
  • Despite this, Black immigrants also face economic challenges and barriers, including having lower median earnings and household income than non-Black immigrants and the U.S. born, and a relatively low rate of home ownership (49 percent, as compared to 73 percent for the non-Black U.S. born and 59 percent for non-Black immigrants). 

The findings come amid a shifting immigration policy environment. Recent federal changes significantly narrowing refugee resettlement and other humanitarian pathways, ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations and increasing immigration enforcement have increased uncertainty for some Black immigrant communities, with a particular focus of late on Haitian and Somali ones. 

“Understanding Black immigrants’ assets and unique challenges, and the considerable diversity within this population, has never been more important,” writes MPI Senior Policy Analyst Valerie Lacarte. “At a time when policies restricting immigration of all kinds are being implemented and misinformation about immigrant communities abounds, the fact remains—and the data in this fact sheet demonstrate—that Black immigrants are generally highly educated, English speaking and significant contributors to the U.S. economy.” 

Read the fact sheet here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/black-immigrants. 

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Staley: The idea of equity deserves to die

2026/02/13 Leave a comment

While I remain critical of the role of these envoys and believe that Amira Elghawaby’s activist background was not helpful compared to the more professional approach of Deborah Lyons (activists obviously disagree), this criticism is over the top. And not even mentioning her name?

And greater equity, not just equality, should be the objective, but without some of the excesses of previous and current policies:

Mercifully and at long last, the corrosive movement of DIE (Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity) seems to be dying in Canadian public life.

Last week, the federal government announced the elimination of the Special Representative for Combatting Islamophobia, along with the federal office for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, which had sat vacant since its last special envoy, Deborah Lyons, left the role last July. Both positions are to be replaced by a new Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion.

To be clear, it is more likely than not that the new advisory council becomes an unproductive mess, and the government is clearly not doing enough to combat antisemitism in particular. Ottawa has never lacked for panels that generate language rather than outcomes. Still, despite that likelihood, there are reasons for optimism.

The first is that the former Special Representative for Combatting Islamophobia had become emblematic of the Liberal government’s equivocal moral relativism when it came to tackling the surge in antisemitic hate post-October 7th. Rather than acknowledge that reality, the Trudeau government appointed a provocateur who consistently downplayed antisemitic incidents, advocated for harsher criticism by the government against Jewish organizations, and advocated for radical and corrosive “anti-Palestinian racism” training….

She was a divisive and corrosive figure whom Canadian taxpayers should never have been footing the bill for.

The second reason for optimism lies in the government’s quiet replacement of the term “equity” in its new advisory council with the older, more conventional “equality.”

Equity is not an extension of equality, but rather a perversion of it.

For centuries, democratic and pluralistic societies moved haltingly toward a simple moral standard. That people should be judged as individuals. The law should be blind to race, religion, and background. Citizens should rise or fall based on the content of their character rather than the circumstances of their birth.

Equity inverted that standard.

Under equity, individuals were reclassified as representatives of groups. Moral judgment shifted from conduct to identity. Group grievance replaced personal responsibility. Group blame replaced individual guilt. The very idea of a shared civic identity gave way to a system of competing moral claims, mediated by mobs of activists, and increasingly, by the state.

The Islamophobia file crystallized this inversion. One form of prejudice was elevated into a bespoke federal portfolio, while others were absorbed into broader categories or left to existing law. The distinction was never coherently justified. Its effect was to teach Canadians that equality before the law was no longer the governing principle.1

The removal of the Islamophobia envoy matters because it signals a retreat from that model, and the elimination of one of the most prominent and corrosive examples of moral relativism of the Trudeau era.

The new Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion may disappoint. It may produce vague language, cautious recommendations, or even foster more division. But the symbolic shift away from equity, and away from offices designed to institutionalize group grievance, still matters.

DIE is ending because it reversed the moral logic of liberal democracy and, in so doing, exhausted its credibility.

Bad ideas rarely die the public death they deserve. They simply stop being defended, then stop being funded, then stop being mentioned.

That, for now, is progress.

Source: The idea of equity deserves to die

Filed under Multiculturalism

Lederman: Now is a bad time for Canada to ditch its antisemitism and Islamophobia envoys

2026/02/12 2 Comments

Yet another commentary arguing for keeping the envoys. Still remain to be convinced that envoys will be any more effective than the council, apart from providing some comfort to affected groups:

…Why not keep these envoys and have them report to the council? 

Granted, the status quo wasn’t working. And it’s fair to question why a government assigns these roles to only specific groups. Why not for Black people – who are the most targeted for hate crimes in Canada – or Indigenous people, or LGBTQ+ folks?

But the way hatred aimed at Jews is being accepted, mainstreamed or shrugged off these days, all around the world, is astounding. 

Canadians are fortunate to have a government that cares enough about discrimination to create this council. But this is crisis time for the Jewish and Muslim communities. Specially designed roles are required, with strong people in them willing to take on all that hate; I don’t know how Ms. Lyons did it, or how Ms. Elghawaby has been doing it. Kudos to them both, and to Mr. Cotler.

It is imperative that the voices representing these communities do not get drowned out, watered down, or disqualified in a council dealing with what shouldn’t be, but sadly and certainly at times will be, opposing concerns.

Source: Now is a bad time for Canada to ditch its antisemitism and Islamophobia envoys

Former Minister and envoy Cotler:

…Mr. Cotler, founder and international chair of the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights non-profit, and Canada’s first antisemitism envoy between 2020 and 2023, said the government’s decision to abolish his former post was “however well intentioned …. uninformed, ill-advised and prejudicial, both to its mandates of preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism.”

He said the decision had been made “precisely at a time when we are witnessing an unprecedented global explosion of antisemitism, including here in Canada, and rising levels of Holocaust denial, distortion, minimization and inversion.”

Mr. Cotler said in a statement that the new advisory council on rights, equality and inclusion, while valuable, will be no replacement for the envoy role. 

“From my experience, such a council, while necessary to combat all forms of hate, tends to marginalize or erase the singularity of anti-Jewish hatred, its globality, and its descent into standing threats of intimidation, harassment, violence and even terrorism,” he said. “This decision will end up, however inadvertently, making Jews in Canada less safe, and feeling less safe.” 

The new advisory council will be overseen by Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller, and it is not known if Ms. Elghawaby, the Islamophobia envoy who still had several months left on her term, will be a member. …

Source: Former antisemitism envoy warns abolition of the post could make Canadian Jews less safe

From former head of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation:

…This is not about privileging one community over another. It is about protecting the integrity of Canada’s human rights framework. Antisemitism remains the oldest and most persistent hatred in Western history. Islamophobia has intensified in recent decades and has proved deadly in Canada. Treating these realities as interchangeable risks responding inadequately to both.

Unity is not built by flattening differences or avoiding difficult truths. It is built through recognition, accountability and trust. Communities facing rising hatred are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for visible leadership, institutional commitment and meaningful consultation. When decisions affecting them are made without that engagement, trust erodes — and trust is far harder to rebuild than institutions.

Canada does not face a choice between unity and effectiveness. It can pursue both. But doing so requires clarity, not consolidation. Dedicated offices with clear mandates, stable funding and public accountability should be strengthened, not dissolved. Advisory bodies should support this work, not replace it.

As we remember the victims of the Quebec City mosque attack and reflect on the enduring lessons of the Holocaust, the minister of Canadian Identity and Culture should reconsider this decision. Combating hatred is not a matter of administrative efficiency. One size does not fit all.

Source: Opinion: Let’s not dilute antisemitism and Islamophobia

Filed under Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Renforcement de la laïcité: Le Barreau propose d’encadrer l’usage de la disposition de dérogation

2026/02/11 Leave a comment

Of note, good to see this pushback. But we will see whether the current or future Quebec governments would support a framework that would limit their action:

Dans un mémoire qui a été soumis lundi aux députés chargés d’étudier le projet de loi 9 sur le renforcement de la laïcité, l’ordre professionnel des avocats – dont la mission est la protection du public et la défense de la primauté du droit – note que le gouvernement de François Legault utilise la disposition de dérogation (aussi nommée la clause de souveraineté parlementaire ou clause nonobstant) pour une sixième fois.

“Le contexte mondial est actuellement marqué par une érosion préoccupante de l’état de droit. La réponse la plus robuste à une telle tendance ne doit pas provoquer l’affaiblissement des mécanismes de justification, de contrôle et de reddition de comptes, mais bien les renforcer. Une démocratie solide se reconnaît à l’obligation que se donne une société de respecter les règles qui la fondent.” Le Barreau du Québec

L’ordre professionnel rappelle que la disposition de dérogation était au départ un « compromis politique historique » dans le cadre du rapatriement de la constitution, en 1982. Or, si son utilisation devait être exceptionnelle, elle a été normalisée au cours des dernières années au Québec, notamment en matière de laïcité et de protection du français. Ottawa a déjà annoncé qu’il s’attardera à la question de son utilisation de façon préventive par le gouvernement québécois dans le cadre de la contestation de la loi 21 sur la laïcité qui sera entendue devant la Cour suprême au mois de mars.

« De mécanisme d’exception destiné à répondre à des situations particulières, la disposition de dérogation est devenue un outil de sécurisation politique mobilisé en amont de la contestation judiciaire et au détriment du dialogue constitutionnel », déplore pour sa part le Barreau.

Une loi-cadre « résolument québécoise »

Dans ce contexte, le Barreau du Québec propose au gouvernement d’adopter une loi-cadre pour assurer une « juste utilisation » de la disposition de dérogation. « Une telle solution sera rassembleuse, sécurisante sur le plan juridique, structurante sur le plan institutionnel, et résolument québécoise », estime l’ordre professionnel.

Une telle loi devrait comporter différents éléments pour assurer « le maintien d’un dialogue réel et soutenu entre le législateur et les tribunaux, tout en réaffirmant sans ambiguïté la souveraineté parlementaire du Québec ». Parmi ces éléments, le Barreau estime qu’il faudrait établir des « conditions strictes » à son recours, l’obligation pour le gouvernement d’expliquer les raisons qui justifient son utilisation, de consulter la société civile et de garantir un débat parlementaire sur la question.

Le Barreau suggère également qu’un seuil supérieur à la majorité simple des députés devrait être requis pour utiliser la disposition de dérogation (afin que la démarche soit transpartisane) et qu’un renvoi vers la Cour d’appel (le plus haut tribunal de la province) soit requis pour obtenir un avis sur la question, sans que celui-ci soit de nature à limiter la souveraineté parlementaire….

Source: Renforcement de la laïcité: Le Barreau propose d’encadrer l’usage de la disposition de dérogation

In a brief that was submitted on Monday to the deputies responsible for studying Bill 9 on the strengthening of secularism, the professional order of lawyers – whose mission is the protection of the public and the defense of the primacy of law – notes that the government of François Legault is using the derogation provision (also called the clause of parliamentary sovereignty or clause notwithstanding) for a sixth time.

“The global context is currently marked by a worrying erosion of the rule of law. The most robust response to such a trend should not cause the mechanisms of justification, control and accountability to weaken, but rather strengthen them. A solid democracy is recognized by the obligation that a society gives itself to respect the rules that base it.” The Quebec Bar

The professional order recalls that the derogation provision was initially a “historic political compromise” in the context of the repatriation of the constitution in 1982. However, if its use were to be exceptional, it has been standardized in recent years in Quebec, especially in terms of secularism and the protection of French. Ottawa has already announced that it will dwell on the issue of its preventive use by the Quebec government in the context of the challenge of Bill 21 on secularism that will be heard before the Supreme Court in March.

“From an exceptional mechanism intended to respond to particular situations, the derogation provision has become a tool for political security mobilized upstream of the judicial challenge and to the detriment of constitutional dialogue,” laments the Bar for its part.

A “resolutely Quebec” framework law

In this context, the Barreau du Québec proposes to the government to adopt a framework law to ensure a “fair use” of the derogation provision. “Such a solution will be unifying, legally secure, institutionally structuring, and resolutely Quebec,” believes the professional order.

Such a law should include different elements to ensure “the maintenance of a real and sustained dialogue between the legislator and the courts, while unambiguously reaffirming the parliamentary sovereignty of Quebec”. Among these elements, the Bar believes that “strict conditions” should be established for its appeal, the obligation for the government to explain the reasons that justify its use, to consult civil society and to guarantee a parliamentary debate on the issue.

The Bar also suggests that a threshold higher than the simple majority of MPs should be required to use the derogation provision (so that the approach is cross-party) and that a referral to the Court of Appeal (the highest court in the province) be required to obtain an opinion on the matter, without this being likely to limit parliamentary sovereignty.

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Kutty | Two major cuts by Carney are testing the limits of community trust

2026/02/10 Leave a comment

As I wrote some four years ago, don’t believe these envoys facilitate integration and greater mutual understanding as they tend to be advocates for particular group: Racism and the need for a national integration commission:

…In practical terms, Ottawa’s legitimacy on this issue will now depend on what happens next.

Who will sit on the new council? Will Muslim and Jewish leaders be adequately represented? Will the council have independence and influence? Will its recommendations shape legislation, policing, education, and online regulation? Will ministers remain directly accessible to affected communities?

Racism and religious discrimination are not interchangeable phenomena. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, and anti-Indigenous racism each have distinct histories and dynamics. Treating them as generic “hate” risks flattening those differences. At the same time, siloed responses can obscure shared structural causes such as economic precarity, digital radicalization, and political scapegoating.

The government must now demonstrate — through appointments, funding, transparency, and sustained engagement — that it is not retreating from the fight against Islamophobia and antisemitism, but reorganizing it in good faith.

Community organizations are right to remain vigilant. Monitoring, advocacy, and constructive pressure are not signs of disloyalty. They are essential features of democratic accountability.

This moment should not be framed as a simple victory or betrayal. It is better understood as a test.

A test of whether Ottawa can move from symbolic politics to durable partnerships. A test of whether institutional reform will deepen or dilute accountability. And a test of whether trust — so painstakingly built over years — will be reinforced or quietly eroded.

The answer will not be found in press releases. It will be found in practice.

Source: Opinion | Two major cuts by Carney are testing the limits of community trust

Filed under Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

HESA: Merit Wars

2026/02/10 Leave a comment

.To watch:

..…The question is: how is the Ford Government going to approach all of this?


As near as I can tell, it has four options.

It can take stock of the full variety of pathways and adjudication of merit and say “eh, this is all too complicated/post-secondary institutes are doing a decent job”. It should go without saying that this is almost certainly the least likely outcome.

It can leave contextualized admissions alone but try to limit the practice of special pathways for Indigenous, racialized or otherwise underserved students. That is, it might give a pass to programs where 10-20% of places are reserved for certain underserved groups, but at the same time say “75% in reserved pathways (as TMU proposes) is too much”. I suspect this is the likeliest option.

It can leave contextualized admissions alone but eliminate pathways entirely. This would mean eliminating things like the U of T’s Indigenous Student Application Program and many other programs like it. My read of Conservatives’ views on this is that they tend to be warier of Indigeneity initiatives than they are of critiquing EDI as a whole, seeing more justice in the claims advanced by Indigenous communities than they do for Black ones (for instance). I think this is less likely than option 2 but would not rule it out.

It could seek to eliminate both pathways and contextualized admissions and tell institutions that the only thing they should use is high school grades.  

That last one might sound radical, but pay attention to what the Ford government has been doing in secondary schools, and in particular the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), which runs a large number of schools which were formerly selective (e.g. Schools of the Arts, Special STEM focus schools, International Baccalaureates, etc.). The selectivity process, naturally, was criticized because marks are often correlated with family income, and so 3 years ago, at the peak of the EDI wave, the TDSB decided to abandon selections and make all these schools lottery-based, which in theory at least would make access to these programs more equitable.

I have no idea whether this policy met its goal or not; to my knowledge there has not been a publicly released study on this. But it caused a number of people to freak out. Accusations of penalizing students who worked hard, of “devaluing merit” began to circulate. And there was some force to those arguments, particularly (IMHO) for elite Fine Arts programs where students no longer had to submit portfolios as evidence of talent/interest, which I think is a bit odd. I have never seen any surveys about this issue, but my guess is that it rankled particularly hard among parents in the entitled upper-middle class and aspirational Chinese families, since these are the groups that tend to do best in a “marks-only” system (for more on how Chinese parents view contextual ideas of merit, do listen to my podcast interview with Ruixue Jia, co-author of The Highest Exam from last fall).

And so, Ford government to the rescue! The government instructed the TDSB to ditch the policy, to loud applause from Trustee Weidong Pei, who gained office campaigning against lotteries. Replacing the lottery system? Well, according to the TDSB “Applicants will be seated based on their overall applicant score; a combination of select report card marks connected to their program of choice and an evaluated demonstration of knowledge and skills”, which sounds a lot like the previous marks-only based system, with all the class-and culture-based biases that brings. 

In other words, if the TDSB’s experience is anything to go by, the Ford government will go straight to option 4. And if that happens, it will be a seriously contentious affair since almost certainly it will mean a big reduction in students from underserved groups getting into high-demand programs. 

Now, none of this is going to happen in this admissions cycle (at least I bloody hope not). The likeliest scenario is that the government makes a move in the spring or summer, in order to put new rules in place – whatever those rules end up being – in place for the fall 2027 admissions cycle. So, we have a few months left before the wars start. But when they start, it won’t be pretty.

Source: Merit Wars

Filed under DEI, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

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