File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0204, message 143


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








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