Protest Letter's Signatories Warn Against Growing Xenophobia In Quebec

It started on Monday when a Montreal university student decided to take a stand against growing expressions of intolerance toward minorities in Quebec. By yesterday, about 900 other self-described "old-stock Quebeckers" had joined in the student's cri de coeur.


They have signed an open letter criticizing the nasty tone of discussions on "reasonable accommodation" and Quebec identity that have been dominating the province.

The protest letter by the signatories - including several law professors and other academics - comes amid a growing sense of discomfort caused by some of the mean-spirited views aired at public hearings on accommodating minorities.

The most strident comments have surfaced in regions of the province where few if any immigrants live.

"When people fall into a trap of xenophobia and racism, it has to be denounced," said Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens, a constitutional law professor at the University of Montreal. "As French Quebeckers, we didn't want to be associated with the people making these kinds of comments, which are intolerant and by-and-large unacceptable."

The statement by "so-called 'old-stock Quebeckers' against intolerance" was posted online Monday by Caroline Allard, a PhD student at the University of Montreal. She said many people have become increasingly disturbed by the shift in mood in the province.

"Everyone around me, there was a sense of discouragement and sadness. The social climate was deteriorating," Ms. Allard, 36, said. "It was important for me to send out a message [to minorities] that we are not afraid of you, we welcome you."

The open letter at http://contrelintolerance.blogspot.com says the discussions have left minorities marginalized and unfairly stigmatized. Isolated cases of accommodation toward religious groups have been blown out of proportion, it said.

The letter also takes aim at the Parti Québécois bill on Quebec citizenship, which would prohibit newcomers from seeking public office unless they showed an "appropriate knowledge" of French. It says the rule would be discriminatory.

"The means proposed are outrageously disproportionate to the objective" of encouraging the adoption of French, said Prof. Gaudreault-Desbiens, who also co-wrote a newspaper opinion piece this week with four other law professors, attacking the bill. "It's a significant denial of a basic democratic right."

Some critics say the roving hearings on reasonable accommodation, chaired by eminent academics Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, have given too wide a berth to expressions of intolerance. A commission ostensibly on religious accommodation has spilled into discussions over whether the captain of the Montreal Canadiens should have to speak French.

But Daniel Weinstock, a professor at the University of Montreal who signed the open letter and acts as an adviser to the Bouchard-Taylor commission, insists it remains a sound idea. "It's a very courageous exercise in democratic dialogue, which very few other societies would dare. On balance, I still think it's a good, healthy debate."

Prof. Weinstock said he believed that once the commission landed in cosmopolitan Montreal at the end of the month, the tenor of comments would change.

Source : The Globe and Mail - Ingrid Peritz