File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0204, message 190


From: "Ralph Hage" <hage.ralph-AT-courrier.uqam.ca>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 10:52:24 -0400
Subject: Re: maybe not zionist... but definitely bigoted



> In Quebec it's not a question of progression - *in my opinion* - 
> it's a question of preservation, it's difficult to be both at the 
> same time.
> 
> Also a great has changed since the first French settlers and now, 
> it's difficult for me to imagine a logic that allows all immigrants 
> during this period to be treated the same.

Immigrants in Quebec are not treated like the rest of the population, 
period. For instance about three years ago there was a drive to recruit 
new school teachers. From a confidential report in the Liberal party - 
which  was not published in order not to alienate the quebec population 
- it turns out that out of the 8000 new teachers hired, there was 
practically none hired that were minority members. This was stated to me 
by a man on the inside and unfortunatly I have no proof beyond that as 
the repport was not published. But other published well known statistics 
include less than 1% minority hiring in the public sector, practically 
none in Hydro Quebec (a government electric company that hires 8000 
people.) A repport from Fraser university that a Montrealer from a 
visible minority who was born in Quebec will expect to make 19% less on 
average than a Quebecois. The numbers also include the cultural 
institutions of Quebec which are as bad as the rest. You can read the 
statistics about that here: 
http://www.petitiononline.com/rrjme321
I know you won't sign it of course.
All of these practices are being justified in the name of protecting the 
French language. But what does this protection imply: a consistant 
practice of racism on the part of Quebec society, a slide into 
Ghetoisation, a creation of a privileged majority, privilege gained 
through discrimination against minorities. It is easy to philophise 
about the necessity for protecting languages, but visible minorities are 
on the other end of these protective measures. Go to Montreal and see 
the numbers of Ph.D's driving taxis because they happen not to be white 
and then tell me about the "necessity of preservation'. All of those 
measures for protecting the French language are turning into an excuse 
to justify privilege. 
   

Ralph Hajj

Portfolio:  http://www.geocities.com/cathedral12001





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