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

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , , ,

«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.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

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?

Filed under Multiculturalism 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 ,

Year in review and look ahead

2025/12/23 Leave a comment

Time for my looking back piece, even if a bit self-indulgent.

Most of my time was spent on an analysis of the 2025 election results from a diversity analysis with Jerome Black, highlighting how representation of visible minorities had increased while that of women and Indigenous had stalled. A second area of major work was following and participating in C-3 citizenship discussions and debates. Annual updates on public service diversity and birth tourism, and setting the baseline for appointments that will be made by PM Carney.

2026 will continue with my various annual updates. Jerome Black and I have an analysis in train on the intersectionality of women and visible minority candidate in competitive ridings. I will be analysing the impact of C-3 in relation to age, gender, and country of origin and comparing that with expatriate voting data, given that the latter has grown significantly and the number of expatriate votes cast exceeds the winning margin in a number of ridings. No doubt other issues of interest will emerge.

Lots to keep me busy and engaged, along with maintaining my blog.

Best wishes for the holidays, whichever ones you celebrate.

Print below by my late father.

Citizenship 

Citations

Immigration – Citations

Multiculturalism 

Diversity and Employment Equity

Before the cuts: a bureaucracy baseline from an employment equity lens (Hill Times)

Political Representation 

The diversity of candidates and MPs stalled for some groups in this election (Policy Options, The Hill Times, with Jerome H. Black)

Citations

Filed under C-3, Citizenship, Immigration, Multiculturalism

Khan: We have to confront what Ahmed al Ahmed fought on Bondi Beach 

2025/12/22 2 Comments

Of note:

…The Muslim community in Sydney has taken a clear stand: it will not receive the body of the deceased terrorist, nor perform funeral rites over it. Dr. Jamal Rifi, a prominent Muslim leader in the city, said: “We don’t see [the offenders] as inside the fold of Islam or as Muslims,” adding, “what they have done is not condoned by any of us and it is killing innocent civilians. We know it is a verse in our book, killing an innocent civilian is the same as killing all humanity.”

Australian authorities have yet to indicate if the attack was related to Israel’s violence against Palestinians. Nonetheless, this is an opportunity to clearly delineate the actions of a government from those of Jews worldwide. It is not antisemitic to criticize and oppose the Israeli government’s genocidal actions against the Palestinians in Gaza and its brutal military occupation of the West Bank. The war crime of Oct. 7, 2023 cannot justify war crimes in which tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children are killed and populations are starved. It is antisemitic, however, to blame all Jews for the actions of the Israeli government. It is antisemitic to vandalize Jewish institutions, businesses and communities in protest. It is antisemitic to instill fear in Jewish communities – and Muslims know all too well the danger of being blamed and targeted for the actions of a few.

After the terrorist attack at a Quebec City mosque during which six worshippers were gunned down in cold blood, and after the murder of three generations of the Afzal family in London, Ont., by an Islamophobe, Canadian Muslims understandably feared for their safety. And while government and law enforcement responded to assure a shaken community, it was grassroots support and love by ordinary Canadians that helped in the healing process. 

Our Jewish friends, colleagues and neighbours are hurting and fearful. Let us all reach out with wings of mercy and compassion, to build stronger communities – and to build a stronger Canada.

Source: We have to confront what Ahmed al Ahmed fought on Bondi Beach

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Immigration: Une Contamination vertueuse

2025/12/19 Leave a comment

Useful reminder of the integration dialectic, and how positive influences work in both directions:

…Ce choc de valeurs est au cœur de débats déchirants sur le vivre-ensemble. Certains y voient le signe d’une incompatibilité fondamentale, irrémédiable. Les immigrants issus de sociétés plus conservatrices seraient porteurs de valeurs si éloignées des nôtres, si dangereuses, qu’ils constitueraient une menace pour notre identité.

Et si c’était l’inverse ? Et si c’étaient eux qui se laissaient contaminer par nos coutumes ?

Plusieurs études ont mis en lumière un tel effet de contagion. Deux chercheurs de Statistique Canada, Kristyn Frank et Feng Hou, se sont par exemple intéressés à la répartition des tâches entre conjoints. En compilant les données de six recensements, ils ont constaté qu’au départ, les nouveaux arrivants continuent d’être influencés par les rapports femmes-hommes qui étaient la norme chez eux. Ainsi, les immigrantes nées dans des pays où les femmes sont moins présentes sur le marché de l’emploi ont tendance, une fois au Canada, à consacrer moins d’heures au travail rémunéré et plus de temps aux corvées ménagères, comparativement à celles qui ont grandi dans des sociétés plus égalitaires.

Mais au fil du temps, l’empreinte du pays natal s’estompe. Plus les années passent, plus le labeur est divisé équitablement, selon l’étudeparue en 2015.

Même les gens qui immigrent à l’âge adulte, donc, en viennent à épouser les normes de leur terre d’accueil, du moins en partie. Et il suffit d’une génération pour que la conversion s’achève.

C’est ce que révèle un sondage mené dans 27 pays européens et relayé en 2014 dans Social Forces. À leur arrivée, les immigrants adhèrent davantage que les non-immigrants au modèle de l’homme pourvoyeur et de la femme au foyer. Avec les années, cependant, leurs opinions se rapprochent de celles des natifs. Et les immigrants de la deuxième génération, nés au pays de parents étrangers, pensent comme la majorité.

…À écouter le portrait qu’en brossent certains leaders, on pourrait croire que le Québec est une société fragile dont les valeurs les plus chères risquent de s’effondrer au contact d’autres cultures.

Mais le Québec n’est pas un château de cartes. C’est un phare qui, malgré ses imperfections, brille suffisamment pour inciter des gens venus d’ailleurs à embrasser ses idéaux. Un lieu où l’égalité, comme la douceur de vivre, est contagieuse.

Source: Contamination vertueuse

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with

Yakabuski: After 120 years, France is still grappling with the meaning of the separation of church and state

2025/12/19 Leave a comment

Interesting survey and generational divide:

…A survey by the polling firm Ifop, marking the 120th anniversary of the 1905 law, found that while 67 per cent of French voters, and 85 per cent of those over 65, support banning religious symbols in the public sphere, this proportion falls to 46 per cent among 18- to 24-year-olds. While 52 per cent of those over 65 consider la laïcité to be an “essential” element of French identity, just 24 per cent of their younger counterparts agree. And the generational divide is growing.

Therein lies an irony: For a country that frowns on public manifestations of faith, French politics do seem to revolve an awful lot around religion. Fully 120 years after the official separation of church and state, France is still grappling with its meaning.

Source: After 120 years, France is still grappling with the meaning of the separation of church and state

Filed under Laïcité, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Various commentary on antisemitism following Sydney

2025/12/18 Leave a comment

Globe editorial: The fight against the growing darkness of antisemitism

…The groups that march in Jewish-Canadian neighbourhoods, as was the case last month in Toronto, are not mere protestors trying to convince their fellow citizens. They are engaged in an act of aggression and intimidation, an echo of the Ku Klux Klan marching through a Black neighbourhood. They are fueling antisemitism.

Holding regular rallies that demand the eradication of Israel, make unproven assertions of genocide and thirst for a global intifada is not an act of mere protest. It is antisemitic, it fuels radicalism and it clears a path for violence. Demand an intifada often enough, and you will get one.

The right to protest, even in a loathsome way, is a constitutional right. But there are laws that can be, and should be, enforced more vigorously. Canada has a hate-speech law on the books. Crown prosecutors should use it, with particular attention to section 319(1) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the public incitement of hatred. And police need to abandon their preoccupation with maintaining public order at all costs. A deescalation strategy does not make sense when dealing with protestors looking to assert control of the streets….

Source: The fight against the growing darkness of antisemitism

Cotler: Condemnations of antisemitism are necessary. But they are simply not enough

…Canadians often look at the gun violence that plagues the United States with scorn and disbelief; its predictability and preventability make it especially tragic and senseless. The U.S. refuses to address the underlying cause – the proliferation of guns – and in 2023, nearly 50,000 Americans died from gun violence, and it was the leading cause of death for minors. After mass shootings, American politicians and public figures almost ritualistically offer their thoughts and prayers. Then they move on, until the next time – and then the pattern continues.

Yet, our approach to violent antisemitism in Canada and throughout the West has been almost identical to America’s approach to gun violence. Antisemitic attacks and incidents have become similarly routine and predictable across liberal democracies. After each incident, politicians issue condemnations, but fail to adequately address the underlying cause: antisemitic incitement and disinformation….

Source: Condemnations of antisemitism are necessary. But they are simply not enough

Regg Cohn | The antisemitism that exploded in Australia has long been brewing in Canada

..The more sophisticated protest leaders understand that these dog whistles send different signals to audiences of differing sophistications. All under the flag of free speech and fair criticism, a flag of convenience.

Consider “Zionism is racism.” Nothing against Jews, just everything against “Zionists” — whoever and whatever and wherever they may be.

It so happens that the vast majority of Jews would see themselves as Zionists of one description or another. They simply support self-determination for the Jews of Israel, as for the people of other lands.

And so if almost every Jew is a Zionist, it turns out that the newly permissive and vicious anti-Zionism is a distinction without a difference. In reality, on the street, online, the truth is that “Zionism is racism” is antisemitism by another name.

“From the river to the sea” is another loaded phrase, long ago embraced by Palestinian nationalists and now imported by sympathizers around the world. What does the slogan really mean?

What river, which sea?

Answer: From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which translates into one land for one people — Palestinians — not two states for two peoples. It would leave no trace of Israel or its nearly 10 million citizens (roughly 8 million Jews and 2 million Arab Christian and Muslim citizens).

“Globalize the intifada” means what, exactly?

Protesters have parsed the phrase, insisting that intifada merely means “shaking off” in conventional Arabic. Are we to believe that all who hear the chant, native Arabic speaker or not, are grounded in this grammatical understanding?

Check the Oxford or Merriam-Webster dictionaries: intifada refers to armed “uprising” or “rebellion” against Israeli occupation.

To “globalize” an armed “uprising” is not an invitation to a tea party. It has a violent context and a confrontational subtext, which is perhaps why New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a darling of progressive protesters, has belatedly agreed to stop using a phrase that unsettles so many in New York, as in Toronto.

Against that backdrop, should we be surprised that father and son — armed with these incendiary slogans and coded chants and antisemitic dog whistles — would load their weapons and take aim at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, slaughtering 15 people? Conditioned and incited by propaganda and prejudice that now travels online and echoes on the streets, it is inevitable that impressionable souls will make illogical leaps that transport their minds from Gaza to Australia or Canada.

Antisemitism, like anti-Zionism, has long predated the Hamas massacre that burst out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli counterattack and overkill. It will persist long after peace finally comes to the Middle East.

I spent four years as a foreign correspondent covering the hatreds of the Middle East. There was a time when I thought Canadians — Jews, Muslims, Christians, people of all faiths and no faiths — could set aside the prejudices of the past and chart a path to a peaceful future.

Back then, I imagined we could transplant our goodwill from Canada to the Middle East, but I had it backwards: Today, the ill will of the Middle East has come to Canada, as it has to Australia.

Source: Opinion | The antisemitism that exploded in Australia has long been brewing in Canada

Lederman: Ahmed al Ahmed showed the world what heroism looks like. What we need now is leadership

…It is tempting to go tribal in difficult times, to keep with our own. This is one of many dangers of a time so dark that lessons passed down from generation to generation might be hatred and violence, rather than love and wisdom. 

Is this massacre a wake-up call? Maybe. But in its wake, my social media feeds still offered up grotesque antisemitism. On a Facebook thread about a new Toronto-area Uber-type service for Jewish people (following reports of Uber drivers shunning certain customers), one guy wrote: “I thought they were called train cars.” In the hours immediately after this massacre, it wasn’t the only Holocaust-related comment on there. When I reached out to the person who wrote it, he told me: lighten up, it’s a joke. He’s from Newfoundland, he replied, where self-deprecating humour is the norm. 

This is very small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. But antisemitism has crept into socially acceptable territory. Would anyone make that kind of public “joke” about any other minority’s deadly persecution? 

I’m so sick of it. The mezuzahs ripped off doorways, the swastikas in public schools, people telling us to go back to Europe. This is happening in Canada.

Sorry if I sound angry during this Festival of Lights. But I am angry.

We can placate ourselves with stories like Mr. Ahmed’s. But we have hit a dangerous place. One man’s heroism is not going to save us. World leaders, Canadian politicians, law enforcement, anyone who has silently stood by while allowing this normalization to happen: it’s your turn to step up and intervene.

Source: Ahmed al Ahmed showed the world what heroism looks like. What we need now is leadership

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

Kermalli: As a Muslim, I grieve the murder of Jews in Australia — the racist attack breaches the ethical core of every faith tradition

2025/12/17 Leave a comment

Good commentary:

..As a Muslim, I grieve this because antisemitism is a form of racism that breaches the ethical core of every faith tradition. I also grieve because such attacks inevitably place Muslim communities under suspicion, intensifying fear of the perceived “other.” This is not an either/or. I can acknowledge and hold both of these realities at once.

It matters, then, that amid this horror, a Muslim man intervened and acted with courage, attempting to stop the violence. The actions of Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old father of two and Australian citizen of Syrian origin exemplify what Islam actually demands: the preservation of life, even at personal risk.

Along with the Jewish victims, he is a figure worth remembering — not because he is Muslim, but because moral clarity should guide whose stories we elevate. After the Christchurch mosque massacres in 2019, former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern refused to name the killer, saying she would not give him the notoriety he sought. That restraint mattered. It still does. Let us remember the people who ran toward danger, not those who revelled in it.

What we must also resist is the rush to politicize tragedy. We cannot associate this terrorist attack with pro-Palestinian protests. If we do, we will weaken the moral credibility of movements that stand for human dignity.

Faith teaches that in the face of violence, our response must be measured, compassionate and united. We must resist the forces that seek to turn grief into conflict.

Source: As a Muslim, I grieve the murder of Jews in Australia — the racist attack breaches the ethical core of every faith tradition

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with

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