Lise Ravary: It took a massacre in a mosque, but Quebecers now see the darkest side of their identity crisis

2017/02/03 Leave a comment

It should not have taken this incident or this long for commentators like Ravary to become more mindful and self-aware, but better late than never.

But yet she still uses the language “at war” rather than strongly opposed, unacceptable or other words.

Words matter:

The killing and maiming of Muslim men in prayer in Québec City Sunday night raises many questions. Some of those questions are extremely uncomfortable for Quebecers.

Over time, we will find out more about the motives of the alleged killer, Alexandre Bissonnette, but such tragedies do not occur in a vacuum. Knowing why it happened is as important as finding out why the first deadly terrorist attack against Muslims by a non-Muslim in the West happened in Quebec.

My gut reaction to the news was “That’s not us!” I tweeted it. Replies from other commenters came fast and furious. “Oh yes, it is. Quebec is a racist society. Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are rampant.”

It’s sad that many Canadians genuinely believe this; I won’t even begin to try and change their minds here. Uniquely racist Quebec is an alternative fact. Even so, in the aftermath of this tragedy, not asking what role, if any, Quebec society played a role in this tragedy would be doing Quebecers a great disservice.

It may be too soon to start laying the cultural blame for this crime but already, politicians such as Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée, have admitted that they may have gone too far in their criticism of Muslims in Quebec. Premier Couillard is asking for a change of tone. He’s right.

As a conservative columnist at war with religious extremism and political Islam in particular, I will keep myself in check. When denouncing Islamism, I always insist that my comments do not apply to Muslims as a people or to Islam as a faith.

I realized last Sunday that many readers don’t see the difference, some because they can’t. Others because they won’t. Media must take this into consideration. Some are blinded by racism and other by fear. Not so much fear of Muslims the quintessential fear that Quebecers have of disappearing as a nation.

Source: Lise Ravary: It took a massacre in a mosque, but Quebecers now see the darkest side of their identity crisis | National Post

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Les braises de l’intolérance | Le Devoir

2017/02/02 Leave a comment

Good analysis by Michel David on how Quebec has yet to come to terms with diversity and the need to avoid identity politics:

Il n’est jamais facile de comprendre les motivations profondes d’un individu qui décide d’assassiner ses semblables, mais on doit certainement s’interroger sur les conditions qui peuvent l’encourager à commettre un acte aussi barbare que le massacre de la mosquée de Québec.

François Legault, que le premier ministre Couillard avait accusé de « souffler sur les braises de l’intolérance », a raison de dire que de telles tragédies ne doivent pas nous faire renoncer à débattre des moyens de combattre l’extrémisme, mais le discours politique qu’on entend au Québec depuis dix ans a pour le moins manqué de nuance. Certes, l’exemple xénophobe de Donald Trump risque d’être contagieux, mais le « code de vie » d’Hérouxville date de janvier 2007 et la boîte de Pandore ne s’est jamais refermée depuis.

Le débat sur la laïcité est tout à fait légitime, mais la crainte de l’extrémisme islamique a eu pour effet de créer une confusion dont l’ensemble de la communauté musulmane est devenue la victime. Une confusion qui a été trop souvent entretenue et exploitée à des fins politiques.
Une triste coïncidence a voulu que le drame de Québec survienne à quelques jours du dixième anniversaire de la création de la commission Bouchard-Taylor, qui visait précisément à empêcher pareils dérapages.
Force est de reconnaître que nous avons collectivement échoué. La « vigoureuse prise de conscience » que la commission voulait provoquer au sein de la société n’a pas eu lieu. La réponse politique n’est pas venue non plus. Depuis la crise des accommodements raisonnables de 2006-2007, aucun gouvernement n’a réussi à légiférer pour donner suite aux recommandations pourtant très modérées de son rapport.
On a sévèrement reproché au gouvernement Marois d’avoir semé la division avec son projet de charte des valeurs. Après la défaite du PQ, ceux qui siégeaient à la table du Conseil des ministres s’en sont désolidarisés les uns après les autres, mais quelqu’un croit-il sérieusement que quelqu’un aurait démissionné si elle avait été adoptée, comme l’a prétendu Jean-François Lisée ?
Il est vrai que le projet de Bernard Drainville ratissait beaucoup trop large, mais la plupart des gens ne prêtent pas une grande attention aux détails d’un projet de loi. C’est surtout le ton du débat et les malheureux amalgames auxquels il peut donner lieu qu’on retient.
Durant les audiences en commission parlementaire, le président du Conseil musulman de Montréal, Salam El Menyawi, avait été moins choqué qu’attristé par le témoignage de la famille Pineault-Caron, de retour d’un voyage au Maroc, où elle avait été horrifiée de voir des hommes « prier à quatre pattes, à terre sur un petit tapis » et qui ne comprenait pas que le maire Coderre laisse « des al-Qaïda, des n’importe quoi » s’installer à Montréal.
« On a besoin d’éduquer la population. C’est triste parce que les gens qui ne connaissent rien à notre religion vont se fier à ces commentaires », avait dit le président. Alors que la commission Bouchard-Taylor proposait la création de programmes qui favoriseraient un rapprochement, le discours politique contribue trop souvent à un éloignement qu’on déplore seulement quand il tourne à la tragédie.
Jean-François Lisée n’est pas un islamophobe, mais il a clairement voulu profiter de l’islamophobie ambiante quand il a associé Alexandre Cloutier à Adil Charkaoui durant la course à la chefferie du PQ. Il n’a pas davantage contribué à alléger le climat en déclarant qu’une burka pouvait cacher un AK-47.
« Tant que plusieurs d’entre eux éprouveront un vif sentiment d’insécurité pour la survie de leur culture, ils seront moins sensibles aux problèmes des immigrants et des minorités ethniques », soulignait la commission Bouchard-Taylor, y voyant l’origine de la crise qui avait entraîné sa création.
Le premier ministre Couillard avait raison d’insister sur l’attention qu’il faut porter au choix des mots, notamment dans le discours politique, mais le devoir de ceux qui gouvernent est aussi de conjurer dans toute la mesure du possible cette insécurité qui tenaille les Québécois.
M. Couillard accuse ses adversaires d’attiser l’intolérance, mais que fait-il lui-même pour les rassurer. Qu’il s’agisse de langue, de laïcité ou d’intégration des immigrants, son gouvernement donne toujours l’impression de chercher à en faire le minimum.
Même dans le projet de loi sur la neutralité religieuse de l’État, on a trouvé le moyen de faire en sorte que la règle voulant que les services publics soient livrés et reçus à visage découvert puisse être contournée. Ce laisser-faire est aussi une façon de souffler sur les braises.
Malgré l’ampleur du drame de dimanche, le Québec a une remarquable tradition de tolérance. En raison de leur histoire et de leur environnement géopolitique, les Québécois sont néanmoins habités par une insécurité culturelle permanente.

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Quebec media, politicians express regret over Islam rhetoric in wake of mosque attack

2017/02/01 Leave a comment

Hopefully, a lasting lesson, not just an immediate one:

Across the province, political operators and media stars offered a range of regrets and conciliatory statements for their failure to take into account the weight carried by their constant analysis of the faith, practices and extremist fringes of Islam dating back more than 10 years.

Journal de Montréal columnist Lise Ravary wrote she has come to realize many citizens fail to catch the nuance between extremism and simple religious devotion in her writing as she has argued for a more secular state.

Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée admitted he has gone too far sometimes. His party long pushed for legislation that would limit religious accommodation in the province and restrict religious symbols and clothing in interactions with the state. Mr. Lisée once warned the burka – a head-to-toe covering some Muslim women wear – is a security risk because it could conceal firearms for a terrorist attacker.

“It wasn’t a good idea to bring that idea into the Quebec debate,” Mr. Lisée told reporters Tuesday. “It’s not easy to be Muslim in the 21st century. We could turn down our language while still debating our values.”

The Bloc Québécois federal party quietly took down an ad from the 2015 election that depicted a niqab – an all-covering black Muslim veil – transforming into a puddle of oil.

As for “radio poubelle” or “trash radio” as critics call it, Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume said the province must “reject … those who enrich themselves with hatred.”

One emotional talk radio host in the city admitted Tuesday to an airwave obsession with radical Islam and expressed his shame that his address book was empty when he needed to talk to local Muslim citizens. “I don’t think a week passes that I don’t talk about their religion, about radical Islam. When I wanted to talk to our own [Muslim] people, I figured out we don’t know any. We didn’t have a number,” said Sylvain Bouchard, morning host on FM93. Mr. Bouchard is far from the meanest host on Quebec City airwaves, and several of his competitors angrily denied going too far.

Muslims in Quebec City and across the province were buoyed by large public rallies of support in recent days but they wonder how much the public debate can change.

“Trash radio constantly wants to talk about Islam and it does us immense harm. We are a small community here and huge numbers of people listen to that radio. They see us, they don’t talk to us, they think we’re monsters,” said Yassin Boulnemour, a friend and co-worker of Abdelkrim Hassane, a 41-year-old father of two who was killed in the attack. “If you want to show us your solidarity, stop listening to the radio.”

Majdi Dridi, an organizer with the Quebec arm of the Muslim Association of Canada, said he hopes authorities will take more seriously routine acts of hate and Islamophobia the community encounters. “It’s time now to fine our points of commonality instead of talking about differences and how to accommodate them.”

Not all of the political and media actors are ready to forget about their agenda for limiting the place of Islam in the public sphere. Bernard Drainville, the former PQ member cabinet minister who in 2013 drafted the failed charter of values that would have limited religious dress in the public service among other measures, took to his current TV and radio commenting gigs to say the debate must go on – after a respectful pause.

Source: Quebec media, politicians express regret over Islam rhetoric in wake of mosque attack – The Globe and Mail

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Incorrect Fox News tweet on Quebec City mosque attack earns scorn of PMO

2017/02/01 Leave a comment

Appropriate quick action by PMO. Expect this will not be the last time that these kinds of corrections and messages will be needed and which I suspect will be more effective than general messaging or statements:

The director of communications for the Prime Minister’s Office has written to Fox News, asking it to remove a tweet that she says is “dishonouring” the victims of the Quebec City mosque shooting.

Kate Purchase sent the letter to Bill Shine, co-president of Fox News Channel, asking the organization to remove a tweet that incorrectly reported the suspect in the shooting was of “Moroccan origin.”

Fox News responded by saying it regretted the error and would delete the tweet.

Amid the chaos that characterized the initial hours after the shooting, the incorrect information was also reported by a number of Canadian news organizations, including CBC News.

The Fox tweet only mentioned one possible shooter, while other organizations reported that there were two possible shooters, including one that was of Moroccan origin. Fox ‘s tweet contained text across an image of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying “We condemn this terror attack on Muslims.”

While two men were initially arrested, police have only charged 27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette. The second man, 19-year-old Mohamed Belkhadir, was not involved in the shooting but rather was a witness to the attack that left six dead.

A link contained in the Fox News tweet leads readers to a story about the shooting in which Fox explains that its initial reporting on the incident later proved to be incorrect.

But Purchase wanted that tweet updated to reflect the most recent information.

“Sadly, this misleading information has been left to stand on the Fox News Channel’s Twitter account and continues to circulate online even now,” Purchase wrote.

“These tweets by Fox News dishonour the memory of the six victims and their families by spreading misinformation, playing identity politics, and perpetuating fear and division within our communities.”

Fox News Tweet

A screengrab of the tweet by Fox News, which went out Monday. (@FoxNews/CBC)

Purchase goes on to say that Canada is an “open, welcoming” country and a “nation of millions of immigrants and refugees.”

Moving beyond the tweet, Purchase says that “we need to remain focused on keeping our communities safe and united, instead of trying to build walls and scapegoat communities.

“If we allow individuals and organizations to succeed by scaring people, we do not actually end up any safer. Fear does not make us safer,” she says. “It makes us weaker. Ramping up fear and closing our borders is not a solution. It distracts from the real issues that affect people’s day to day life.

“For all of these reasons, we ask that Fox News either retract or update the tweet to reflect the suspect’s actual identity.”

Late Tuesday, FoxNews.com managing director Refet Kaplan issued a statement saying the organization regretted the error and had made moves to correct it.

“FoxNews.com initially corrected the misreported information with a tweet and an update to the story on Monday,” Kaplan said in the statement. “The earlier tweets have now been deleted. We regret the error.”

Source: Incorrect Fox News tweet on Quebec City mosque attack earns scorn of PMO – Politics – CBC News

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Montréalais soupçonné de terrorisme: «Ils ont tout fait pour me radicaliser» 

2017/01/21 Leave a comment

Interesting testimony by one radicalized Québécois, and the contribution that feeling second-class made in his radicalization journey:

Les parents de Wassim, des immigrants algériens, ne sont pas particulièrement religieux, dit-il. Lui s’est tourné vers la religion vers l’âge de 18 ans, notamment parce qu’il dit ne pas avoir trouvé sa place dans la société québécoise.

« J’ai grandi dans Côte-des-Neiges et après dans Outremont, et les gens étaient toujours en train de m’emmerder. Ils me disaient de retourner dans mon pays. Ils me demandaient si je parlais français. Je suis né à Montréal. Où est-ce qu’ils voulaient que je retourne ? Avec des histoires comme ça, j’ai commencé à détester tout le pays. »

Le jeune homme raconte s’être souvent senti traité comme un citoyen de deuxième classe. « On se sent pas chez nous. T’as pas les mêmes chances. T’es pas traité de la même façon tant que t’es pas comme eux, dit-il. Tu vas voir les Québécois et ils te rejettent. J’ai dit OK, je vais revenir à mes origines. »

« Je le dis sans vouloir insulter, mais les anglophones sont plus gentils avec nous. » Il raconte avoir été marqué, adolescent, par « l’affaire Hérouxville » en 2007, alors que le conseil municipal du village de la Mauricie avait adopté un code de conduite pour les immigrants, et par les accommodements raisonnables. Il a suivi le débat entourant la charte des valeurs à distance, en 2014.

« C’est juste au Québec que ça arrive. Ça confirme ce que je pense. Je ne sais pas si je serais parti si j’avais grandi dans une autre province. »

Se considère-t-il comme un radical ? « Pourquoi est-ce qu’un juif qui va se battre pour son peuple n’est pas vu comme radical ? Ça n’a pas de sens. Selon la définition du gouvernement canadien, oui, je suis radical. Je ne mentirai pas. Mais à mes yeux, je ne suis pas radical. Je ne suis pas extrémiste. Pour moi, être radicalisé, c’est quand t’es tellement obtus dans tes opinions que tu n’acceptes rien d’autre. Je ne suis pas comme ça. »

Il affirme qu’il soutiendrait n’importe quel État où la loi islamique est appliquée, mais qu’il est contre le groupe armé État islamique. « Ils sont hors de l’islam. Ils sont devenus fous. »

Jamais il ne reviendra au Canada, dit-il.

Des membres du groupe soupçonné dans l’affaire de la prise d’otages, aucun n’a été arrêté, mais l’enquête se poursuit.

Source: Montréalais soupçonné de terrorisme: «Ils ont tout fait pour me radicaliser» | Gabrielle Duchaine | Justice et affaires criminelles

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ICYMI: Quebec City guide to help integrate newcomers derided as insulting, infantilizing

2017/01/20 Leave a comment

Does seem that this guide would have benefited from greater care in its design and emphasis. That being said, it is an effort to capture some unwritten aspects of integration but not whether the content reflects evidence or is based upon the assumptions of the authors:

Immigrants who settle in Quebec City are being offered a new guide to explain local customs, and the authors spare no detail in telling the newcomers how to fit in – for example, refrain from committing incest, wash with soap and use underarm deodorant to “control perspiration and bad odours.”

The guide from city hall was made public last week and has already been condemned as insulting and paternalistic.

“It’s a good idea to prepare something intelligent to help immigrants, but the way it was done is infantilizing,” Anne Guérette, municipal opposition leader in Quebec City, said on Sunday.

Quebec City is one of 13 municipalities across Quebec designated by the province to settle refugees from Syria. While Montreal remains the overwhelming destination of choice for newcomers, more than 550 state-sponsored refugees landed in Quebec City, 400 of them from Syria.

To help them integrate, city hall unveiled a guide last week, “Québec, Une ville pour moi” (Quebec City, A city for me) that spells out “common values” and ways of life in the province’s second-largest city. Some of the values, such as the equality of men and women, are commonly recognized in Canada. Other rules in the booklet, whose contents were first reported in Le Journal de Québec, seem to treat newcomers as if they are joining the civilized world for the first time, or have never bathed.

The section on “Hygiene and body care,” which is accompanied by a diagram of a dark-haired man with a beard, advises brushing one’s teeth at least twice a day “with a toothbrush and toothpaste.” Hand-washing is a must, “especially after going to the bathroom,” among other occasions. Socks and underwear should be washed after each use. And when washing one’s body, “pay particular attention to underarms, feet and intimate parts.”

For household rules, the guide counsels limiting kitchen odours through the use of an oven vent, and removing shoes inside the house to avoid disturbing one’s neighbours. In yet another rule aimed at removing “bad odours,” the guide helpfully suggests opening a window.

Mayor Régis Labeaume defended the guide in Quebec City last week, calling it “completely normal.”

“We could have just talked about sorting household garbage, but that is not enough,” Mr. Labeaume said. “There are practices, ways, traditions that are different,” he said. “There are laws and rules that exist here that might be different from the countries of origin of immigrants. So it’s better to go this far.”

The tips out of Quebec City come as the country debates the notion of defining “Canadian values,” as the country integrates large numbers of newcomers, and as Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch has proposed screening would-be immigrants for “anti-Canadian values.”

Quebec City’s guide, which received funding from the provincial immigration ministry, also has a section on family violence. It says using violence against your spouse violates the Criminal Code, as is using “unreasonable” force or using a belt or ruler to punish your child. Sexual consent is necessary even among married couples. Incest is a crime.

“For example: Brother + sister = illegal. Parent + child = illegal,” the guide spells out.

The guide is being distributed to organizations working with immigrants and refugees. Chantal Gilbert, a city councillor whose responsibilities include minority ethnic communities, says the individual sections can be made available to groups depending on their particular needs.

“There are communities to whom things won’t necessarily apply,” she said. “There are communities that might come from a place that is exactly the same culture as us, though they might need to know how things work for schooling. Even a French person from France comes here and can’t figure out the schooling for their children.”

Source: Quebec City guide to help integrate newcomers derided as insulting, infantilizing – The Globe and Mail

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Éthique et culture religieuse: contre tous les dogmatismes | Le Devoir

2017/01/17 Leave a comment

Good defence of the Quebec ethics and religious culture course by Christine Cossette who teaches it:

Je dis aussi à mes élèves que le doute fait partie de la foi et la rend plus intelligente en l’éloignant des dogmatismes. La foi n’est pas une évidence ; elle doit se soumettre constamment à l’esprit critique. Je la présente donc non pas comme une instance qui dit quoi penser, mais plutôt comme celle qui donne des outils pour mieux penser sa vie. C’est alors que la religion est au service de l’homme et non le contraire.

Ce que le volet Culture religieuse m’autorise à faire, c’est de mettre en lumière le nécessaire travail d’exégèse sur les textes sacrés. En étudiant par exemple la question de l’origine de la vie, je vois le darwinisme et j’analyse le contexte d’écriture des récits de la Genèse qui peuvent, s’ils sont lus mot à mot, mener à de l’obscurantisme. Mes élèves comprennent donc que, dans ces textes, scientifiques et bibliques, deux discours se côtoient mais ne s’opposent pas et qu’un scientifique peut donc être croyant ou non.

Le cours d’ECR m’offre aussi l’occasion de parler de la spiritualité qui est la commune condition humaine (qu’on soit religieux ou pas). En effet, l’être humain n’a pas nécessairement besoin de se lier à une quelconque divinité pour vivre de valeurs qui le grandissent. La spiritualité appartient à l’homme dans son humanité la plus profonde, précisément parce qu’il porte en lui un mystère qui le dépasse. L’occasion est belle ici de parler de ceux qui ont ouvert d’incroyables chemins d’humanité grâce à leur foi, à leur générosité ou à leur réflexion philosophique.

La mondialisation, avec ses limites et ses grandeurs, nous oblige à réfléchir sur l’avenir de l’humanité : comment en arriver à sauver un espace de dialogue entre chacun de nous ? Le combat n’est plus à faire entre les athées et les croyants, mais bien entre les esprits ouverts et les esprits dogmatiques qui, eux, prétendent connaître la Vérité. Or, on sait que le dogmatisme se cache autant dans le monde religieux que dans l’univers anti-religieux. « Pour mener ce combat pour la liberté et pour la tolérance, dit Comte-Sponville, nous avons besoin de faire la paix entre croyants et incroyants, de nous allier contre notre ennemi commun, qui n’est pas la religion, qui n’est pas l’athéisme, mais qui est le dogmatisme. »

Le cours d’ECR me permet de proposer cet espace de réflexion pour une humanité plus respectueuse des uns et des autres. Il me donne cette possibilité aussi de présenter ce que l’orthodoxe Olivier Clément appelle le « noyau de feu » de chacune des grandes religions en mettant en lumière ce qui les unit. Après tout, n’est-il pas honnête de dire que d’autres avant nous ont laissé des trésors pour vivre en humanité ?

J’aime donner ce cours. J’estime qu’il contribue à former des citoyens justes, courtois et à l’esprit critique. Mais je suis fatiguée de lire toutes les inepties qu’on peut en dire. Je rêve du jour où, enfin, ses détracteurs se donneront la peine de lire, non pas les cahiers d’exercices, mais bien le programme tel qu’il a été pensé, tout en précisant qu’il devrait être un peu plus balisé pour obliger ses professeurs à toujours plus de rigueur à travers l’apprentissage de fondements philosophiques, historiques et théologiques.

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ICYMI Immigration au Québec: les Syriens détrônent les Français | Pierre-André Normandin | National

2016/12/19 Leave a comment

 

Les données obtenues auprès du ministère de l'Immigration... (Photo Alain Roberge, archives La Presse)

Latest immigration statistics from Quebec showing the impact of Syrian refugees:

Les données obtenues auprès du ministère de l’Immigration du Québec démontrent qu’un nouvel arrivant sur 7 lors du 1er semestre de 2016 était originaire de Syrie.

L’arrivée massive de réfugiés syriens au début de 2016 a profondément modifié le visage de l’immigration au Québec. Les Syriens ont en effet détrôné les Français comme principal groupe d’immigrants, selon les données de l’Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ).

Le bilan démographique du Québec, publié aujourd’hui par l’ISQ, dresse le portrait de l’immigration dans la province. Les données obtenues auprès du ministère de l’Immigration du Québec démontrent qu’un nouvel arrivant sur 7 lors du 1er semestre de 2016 était originaire de Syrie.

Il s’agit du principal groupe d’immigrants à s’installer au Québec. Cette proportion est nettement plus forte que la part d’immigration observée en 2015. La Syrie représentait 5,9% de toute l’immigration l’année dernière.

En 2015, le principal groupe d’immigrants provenait de la France. Ceux-ci ont représenté 9,2% de toutes les personnes ayant décidé de quitter leur pays pour s’installer au Québec. L’arrivée des Français dans la belle province ne s’est pas tarie en 2016, au  contraire. Ceux-ci représentaient au premier semestre tout près d’un immigrant sur dix.

Alors que l’immigration en provenance de Syrie augmente rapidement, l’Institut note une baisse du nombre de personnes venant s’établir au Québec en provenance de l’Iran, de l’Algérie et d’Haïti. Ces pays ont longtemps été une importante source d’immigration pour la province.

Le portait de l’immigration au Québec est sensiblement différent de celui du reste du Canada. Les Philippines fournissent le principal contingent d’immigrants pour le pays, suivi par l’Inde. Ces deux pays ne figurent pas parmi les principaux groupes d’immigrants au Québec.

Part de l’immigration par pays

Rang 1er semestre de 2016 2015
1. Syrie: 14,5 % France: 9,2 %
2. France: 9,9 % Chine: 7,4 %
3. Chine: 6,7 % Iran: 7,3 %
4. Iran: 5,2 % Syrie: 5,9 %
5. Haïti: 4,6 % Algérie: 5,5 %
Source: Immigration au Québec: les Syriens détrônent les Français | Pierre-André Normandin | National

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Identity politics returns to Quebec: Patriquin

2016/12/17 Leave a comment

Martin Patriquin’s balanced take on Quebec’s Bill C-62 (banning face covering when providing or receiving public services):

Quebec is home to a majority population of about 6.6 million French speakers, where about three-quarters of the 50,000 immigrants who arrive here every year settle in the region of Montreal. The city is multicultural and multilingual. The rest of the province is largely white and French.

The populism resulting from this unique demographic circumstance, which surfaced in the 2007 election campaign, had a distinctly Trumpian narrative to it. To wit: the political elites in Quebec City were corrupt and out of touch. Immigration had turned Montreal into a Babylonian hellhole, and threatened to do the same to the hinterland. By throwing out the first and radically curtailing the second, Quebec would be . . . well, it would be great again.

Two political parties, first the right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) and then the Parti Québécois, attempted to harness this resentment. Both failed miserably. The ADQ ceased existing in 2012, while the PQ suffered one of the worst defeats in its history in 2014.

Still, issues of immigration and religion remain a stubborn constant in Quebec politics. Both the PQ and the Coalition Avenir Québec, the successor to the ADQ, have introduced plans to cut immigration levels. Both have equated the rise in immigration under successive Liberal governments to the decline of French in the province—a contention disproved by several recent Quebec government studies.

PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée said burqas should be banned before “a jihadist uses one to hide his movements.” The CAQ recently ran an advertisement suggesting the chador would become commonplace in Quebec classrooms should either the Liberals or the PQ form the next government. (In truth, body-covering Muslim garb is about as rare in Quebec as Maple Leafs fans.)

Yet despite all this rhetoric over the last 10 years, Quebec remains a comparatively welcoming province. At 3.2 per 100,000, police-reported hate crimes in the province are below the national average of 3.7—and well below Ontario’s average of 4.8, according to the most recent Statistics Canada data.

It is in the crucible of the debate that the province has developed guidelines for so-called “reasonable accommodations” of religious and cultural practices. In 2017, Quebec’s National Assembly will vote on Bill 62, which would compel anyone giving or receiving a public service to do so with their face uncovered—unless the temperature, not religion, dictates otherwise. It is the second time in six years that the province has attempted to pass such a thing.

The bill has its critics, and will almost certainly be the subject to a court challenge should it become law. Yet in limiting its reach to the public service, the legislation strikes a balance between religious freedom and state religious neutrality. (Such is decidedly not the case in France, where the very act of wearing a religious face covering in public is illegal.) The final vote on Bill 62 will take place outside the context of an election campaign, when instances of chest-thumping vitriol tend to be lower. The optimist hopes cooler heads will prevail.

While America is hardly new to the caustic politics of race and identity, it raced to new lows during the last presidential campaign. Trump’s victory has invigorated populist movements around the globe; suddenly, the world is awash in worry over immigration and religion.

In Quebec, this sort of thing is old hat. Long the outlier on the identity front in Canada, Quebec’s take on matters of religion and immigration suddenly seem sensible, even desirable, in a world of border walls and Muslim bans.

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Opinion: Scorn for multiculturalism in Quebec yields troubling results

2016/12/17 Leave a comment

Quebec human rights lawyer Pearl Eliadis:

Interculturalism starts from the premise of the de facto precedence of Quebec’s majority culture over others. That practical reality was not supposed to have morphed into legal precedence, nor to have operated in a way that perpetuates the privileges of that majority. However there are troubling indications that it has done just that.

Other rights have been subordinated, including racial and religious equality. This is in part the result of Quebec’s brand of laïcité-lite that has imposed religious neutrality on non-majoritarian faiths and individuals as well as on the state. Equality and reasonable accommodation for minorities have become battlegrounds in the fight for “Quebec values.” The Supreme Court keeps having to intervene, as it did in the Multani decision in 2006 (to permit an observant Sikh boy to wear a sewn-in, concealed kirpan to school) and in several other cases after that.

In 2011, the National Assembly barred Sikhs from its precincts after having invited them to participate in a debate on reasonable accommodation. In 2013, there was the PQ’s nativist Charter of Values, Bill 60, built squarely on the foundations of Quebec values and interculturalism.

In 2015, the Quebec Liberals introduced Bill 62. It is nowhere as troubling as the Charter of Values, but it does weaken the flexibility of the public sector in accommodating religious minorities. Both Quebec’s human rights commission and the Quebec Bar Association have objected to several aspects of the bill.

As for the practical effect of protecting the “de facto precedence” of the majority, minorities are dealt with as satellite communities revolving around the “host society” until they are absorbed, effectively assimilated, and no longer seen as threats. Nowhere is the impact of this approach clearer than in the relatively poor employment prospects of immigrants in Quebec and, of course, in the low representation of minorities among the senior ranks of the Quebec public service. The issue is systemic and transcends party loyalties, and yet we continue to be forced to ask questions for which the answers are, depressingly, well known. How many senior appointments among Quebec’s public institutions, agencies and commissions are from racialized or ethnic minority backgrounds? How many are anglophones or allophones?

When the news about Thermitus [candidacy for the presidency of Quebec’s human rights commission] became public, the PQ quickly pivoted, perhaps mindful of the appalling optics, and said it would support the appointment. That is good news, even if it’s not yet clear whether Thermitus will get the job. But the broader issue of the rejection of multiculturalism in Quebec reminded me of something that Zadie Smith, the British-born novelist, said in November while accepting a literary prize: “The people who ask me about the ‘failure of multiculturalism’ mean to suggest that not only has a political ideology failed but that human beings themselves have changed and are now fundamentally incapable of living peacefully together despite their many differences.” That is not an outcome any of us should be prepared to accept.

Source: Opinion: Scorn for multiculturalism in Quebec yields troubling results | Montreal Gazette

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

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