Groups representing the English-speaking and immigrant communities voiced their concerns about the province’s new integration bill that would force newcomers to embrace Quebec values.
The proposed legislation, also known as Bill 84 or An Act respecting national integration, aims to enshrine what François Legault’s government calls a “social contract” that does away with multiculturalism and adopts an intercultural model.
It calls for newcomers and cultural minorities to adhere to values of equality between men and women, secularism and civil law tradition, among others.
During public hearings on the bill Tuesday in Quebec City, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), which advocates for the rights of English speakers, said the bill makes only a “fleeting” mention of the community, putting a worrying strain on groups that rely on provincial funding.
“What is our community’s place — what is our role in Quebec society — as Quebecers who speak English, in addition to speaking French?” said QCGN Director-General Sylvia Martin-Laforge to the Committee on Citizen Relations.
In her view, Bill 84 “narrows the definition of Quebec’s heritage and culture to one that is exclusively French,” while ignoring the contributions of First Nations, anglophones and other minority communities.
“We believe we are being written out of history,” Martin-Laforge said.
The day the bill was tabled, Jean-François Roberge, the minister responsible for the French language who also sponsored Bill 84, said that cultural events, such as festivals, might not have their grants renewed unless they conform to the spirit of the bill, but denied that the proposed law is rooted in anti-immigrant sentiment.
“The bill’s expressed intent to use the state’s financial stick to encourage compliance concerns us,” Martin-Laforge said at Tuesday’s hearing.
Louis Lemieux, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) MNA for Saint-Jean and parliamentary assistant to the minister for the French language, rebuffed her criticism.
“You are part of our common history, you’re part of our common present, and you’re part of our common future,” he said before referencing a National Post column on Feb. 11 entitled “Quebec’s cultural integration bill is a model for the rest of Canada” and asking Martin-Laforge if she is for or against multiculturalism.
“We are poster children for integration in Quebec,” she responded, adding that English speakers have a long history of learning, speaking, and working in French. “Integration in Quebec, we know all about it … but with this bill, we don’t see ourselves reflected."
Before the hearing, the government insisted that French is not only the official and common language, but it’s the “integration language.”
“The bill says that newcomers have some duties, but the government has some duties too, and all Quebecers should be part of this if we want to succeed. So let’s improve the bill and let’s all work together,” he said.
QCGN wasn’t the only group to voice their opposition to the bill.
The Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI), which represents more than 150 organizations that work with newcomers, said Bill 84 represents an “assimilationist approach.”
In a document of “preliminary comments” submitted to the National Assembly, the group criticized the bill for not considering “the full participation of immigrants as an end in itself, but rather as a means of ensuring that they adhere to and contribute to the common culture,” and for not proposing any measures “to tackle the structures that produce inequalities, such as systemic racism or discrimination.”
Joe Ortona, president of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and chairperson of the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), said it’s hard for institutions not to feel “suspicious.”
“Even when the government is well-intentioned, they could unintentionally violate the rights of a linguistic minority because they don’t understand our culture, they don’t understand our needs, our concerns, our reality,” he said.
Sociologist Gérard Bouchard also took part on Tuesday.
He said he was “happy” to see that the concept of interculturalism — of which he is one of the intellectual fathers — has inspired the minister’s bill.
“It is high time that Quebec adopted a model for managing diversity that moves away from both Canadian multiculturalism and all assimilationist models or models with an assimilationist tendency,” he wrote in his brief submitted to the National Assembly.
With files from The Canadian Press
