From: "julian samuel" <jjsamuel-AT-vif.com> Subject: will Jen Drouin respond to: "As for Montreal, it has the whitest city council of any major North American city... Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 11:31:18 -0700 Dear List Members: This article was published in the Montreal Gazette, as brilliant a newspaper as Le Devoir. I ask that Jen Drouin show us how this article is Zionist. Thanks Jen. Julian Samuel Friday » March 29 » 2002 Opening our doors Quebec is receiving more immigrants, but we can do a lot more to make them welcome HENRY AUBIN Montreal Gazette Friday, March 29, 2002 The best news for the Montreal region I've heard so far this year is that the number of newcomers is surging. The provincial government said this week 37,498 immigrants came to Quebec last year, almost all to Montreal. That's the biggest influx since 1993, the year before the Parti Québécois came back to power. These robust numbers reflect, of course, the current political stability and the improved economy that flows from it. By offsetting the wilting birth rate, the new arrivals are contributing to a more prosperous, lively Montreal. But there's a more sobering aspect to the immigration numbers. They're impressive only when seen in isolation. Quebec's share of all of Canada's immigrants last year came to just 15 per cent. That's better than the 12-13 per cent range of the mid-1990s, when sovereignty fervor was peaking, but it's far below what Quebec, with a quarter of Canada's people, ought to be getting. Apologists have a ready explanation. They say it's because many people abroad think of North America as an English-speaking place, and they'd rather not live where the dominant language is something else. This view insulates the government from criticism: after all, most Quebec francophones support the government language policy. They don't want to compromise on it to get more immigrants. But the language excuse is not the whole story. Less acknowledged is major institutions' continued inability to make immigrants feel at home. For decades, successive governments have been rebuked for allowing the civil service to hire absurdly few new Quebecers. But Immigration Minister André Boulerice this week jolted even long-numbed critics. One of the very few provincial agencies in which new Quebecers have had responsibility is the Council on Intercultural Relations. Breaking with tradition, however, Boulerice named an old-stock francophone as its chairman. The appointee, Pierre Anctil, has an honest reputation as a civil servant in Boulerice's department, but the symbolism is telling. It's a bit as if Quebec named a man to head the Council on the Status of Women. Another example of an incapacity for inclusiveness is the Quebec Human Rights Commission. Because it probes complaints of racial bias, you'd think it, of all agencies, would include a generous number of members of racial and ethnic minorities. However, if you wonder why bias continues to fester without the commission speaking out loudly, consider this: old-stock francophones fill 11 of the 14 commissioners' seats, including the chairman and vice-chairman. There is no anglophone. On the Ontario Human Rights Commission, it's noteworthy that the majority of the 12 commissioners are either from visible minorities (four) or are francophone (three). Of course, elected officials make these appointments. The National Assembly is a sea of white faces. As for Montreal, it has the whitest city council of any major North American city. Although about 20 per cent of Montrealers are members of visible minorities, only one of 73 councillors is non-white, or 1.4 per cent. In Toronto, five of 44 councillors are non-white, 11 per cent. Many media, especially French-language private television, are also resistant. Minorities often say that, except for several tokens, TQS, TVA and Vidéotron show few visible minorities on prime time. Radio-Canada, the federal broadcaster,is an exception. At a three-day national forum last month in Montreal on "Canadian Media, Race and Cultural Diversity," several private networks from English Canada sent representatives. Although the forum, mainly sponsored by the federal government, was bilingual, TQS, TVA and Vidéotron did not attend, an absence that speaks for itself. Yet now and then there's a reminder of how things ought to be. Metropolis Bleu, which starts Wednesday, is a example. The literary festival will showcase a glorious mix of Quebec writers - Victor-Lévy Bealieu, Lise Bissonnette, Neil Bissoondath, William Weintraub and Naïm Kattan - and bring in foreigners as well, like Susan Sontag. On another bright note, La Presse reported this month a study of 5,000 Quebecers age 12 to 15 showed 70 per cent of boys and 84 per cent of girls would accept a family member marrying someone with another skin colour. Change is coming. It might just take another generation to give it momentum. - Henry Aubin is The Gazette's regional-affairs columnist. His E-mail address is haubin-AT-thegazette.southam.ca. © Copyright 2002 Montreal Gazette Copyright © 2002 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All rights reserved. Optimized for browser versions 4.0 and higher. --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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