Quebec Demands Immigrants Sign-Off on ‘Shared Values’
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Graeme Hamilton, National Post, Oct. 29, 2008
Future immigrants to Quebec will be required to sign a declaration promising to learn French and respect Quebec’s “shared values,” the government announced on Wednesday.
In a document with echoes of the controversial code adopted last year by the rural town of Hérouxville, immigrants will be informed that Quebec is a democracy where men and women are equal and violence is prohibited.
“Quebecers have said yes to immigration, but they said yes to immigration on the condition that these immigrants integrate into our society,” Immigration Minister Yolande James said as she announced the policy, which takes effect in January. She added that immigrating to Quebec “is a privilege not a right.”
With Liberal Premier Jean Charest expected to call an election next week, critics denounced the initiative as an attempt to undermine the opposition Action Démocratique du Québec and Parti Québécois, which have both made defence of “the Quebec identity” a battle cry.
“There is a political calculation here that the Liberals want to make sure they have arguments to get PQ and ADQ support,” said Daniel Weinstock, a professor of philosophy at Université de Montréal. It is aimed at voters in the Quebec hinterland who approved of Hérouxville’s initiative, which among other things informed newcomers to the town northeast of Montreal that it is prohibited in Canada to stone women or throw acid on them.
While the content of the Quebec government declaration is banal enough to be rendered meaningless, Mr. Weinstock said, it sends a negative message to newcomers.
“It’s as if the Jews, the Muslims, the whatever who come here are all indisposed to the equality of men and women, and we have to tell them what’s what,” he said. “It’s cheap symbolism, and I can’t express how depressed it makes me.”
The shared values spelled out in the declaration are: Quebec is a free and democratic society; church and state are separate; Quebec is a pluralist society based on the rule of law; men and women have equal rights; and rights and freedoms are exercised while respecting those of others and the general well-being.
It also stresses that French is the official language of Quebec, as laid out in Bill 101. Signatories will declare their intention to learn French if they do not already speak it.
The Immigration Department plans to bombard potential and new immigrants with messages stressing Quebec values. There will be a section on values added to the immigration forms filled out overseas and an explanatory pamphlet will be distributed. Immigrants will also receive a DVD on shared values and be directed toward a new Web site whose name translates as “shared values of Quebec.” Information sessions on shared values will be offered to immigrants after they arrive.
“Once our new Quebecer has got off the plane at the airport, she will follow a course on how to live in Quebec, how things work here, what the socio-economic realities are,” Ms. James explained.
Victor Armony, professor of sociology at Université du Québec à Montréal, said he is disgusted by the government’s approach. Many immigrants to Quebec are successful businesspeople or professionals in their native countries. “They don’t need Quebec society to patronize them,” he said.
He immigrated from Argentina in 1989. “When I came here, I valued democracy perhaps more than many Canadians, because I grew up in a dictatorship,” he said.
Mr. Charest first raised the notion of forcing immigrants to sign a declaration last May when the Bouchard-Taylor commission released its report on reasonable accommodation. The issue of integrating cultural and religious minorities had been an emotional topic in Quebec since late 2006, and it gave the ADQ a boost in the March 2007 election. After a year of research and public hearings, the commissioners did not recommend such a declaration for immigrants.
(Posted on October 30, 2008)
Comments
Good for the Quebecers! As French-speaking persons in English-speaking (for now, anyway) North America, they have a clear sense of their racial and cultural identity and a determination to protect it that is much stronger than is the case for English-speaking Canadians outside Quebec, and also for Americans. Quebecers are leading the way, and I hope that the rest of Canada and the United States will follow.
Posted by Matt at 5:49 PM on October 30
Quebecers have still chosen language over race. Their disdain for Anglo-English-Canada trumps race. I fear they’re still going to be flooded by Moroccan Muslims simply because they speak French.
It’s going to be too late for French Canada when they learn that they have more in common with white Anglo-Canadians than they do with Africans and Muslims. It’s not the English speaking tourists who are destroying and vandalizing their historic architecture with graffiti. Respect for French Canadian history and culture mean nothing to the new conquerors.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 6:03 PM on October 30
““Quebecers have said yes to immigration, but they said yes to immigration on the condition that these immigrants integrate into our society,” Immigration Minister Yolande James said as she announced the policy, which takes effect in January. She added that immigrating to Quebec “is a privilege not a right.”
Out of all the nations of the West just this one has in place a policy of sane immigration, spelled out as it should be by people intelligent enough to understand the necessity of composing a set of rules and demands for allowing strangers with strange customs into their land.
Taking this into consideration, does anybody now fail to understand why so many avoidable erroneous policies have been enacted by white dimwits throughout history?
Posted by mitch at 6:04 PM on October 30
When Jean Charest ran for prime minister of Canada in 1997, he said he wanted to leave the same Canada to his children that his parents left him. Maybe this code for immigrants is his way of doing it.
Posted by at 6:38 PM on October 30
Haha.. this is hilarious. What do they do? Mark an X on a piece of paper shoved in front of them in a language they can’t read and then go in to do exactly what they were going to do anyways? The liberals have lost their minds!
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 6:43 PM on October 30
“Hérouxville’s initiative, which among other things informed newcomers to the town northeast of Montreal that it is prohibited in Canada to stone women or throw acid on them.”
UNBELIEVABLE. This just says it all. Quebec needed an “initiative” to inform so called human beings that it’s prohibited to stone or throw acid at women.
It just boggles the mind. Remind me again why on earth we let people like this into our countries?
Posted by at 6:43 PM on October 30
“Victor Armony, professor of sociology at Université du Québec à Montréal, said he is disgusted by the government’s approach. Many immigrants to Quebec are successful businesspeople or professionals in their native countries. “They don’t need Quebec society to patronize them,” he said.”
Hiring faculty of foreign origin a big problem in Canada. Tenure as a professor in a university is a coveted and influencial position. This fellow only arrived in Canada in 1989, and like many other new hires in Canadian universities, barely disguises his contempt and ingratitude toward Canadians.
Canada should not be so liberal in allowing professorships to go to foreigners. It is a sign of backwardness and underconfidence.
Posted by at 7:47 PM on October 30
In exchange for citizenship, the 3rd World immigrants will gladly sign a piece of paper promising to learn French, obey the law and adapt Western values.
And they will be just as sincere as a serial killer who promises the parole board he’ll become a pacifist if set free.
Posted by Madison Grant at 9:51 PM on October 30
“UNBELIEVABLE. This just says it all. Quebec needed an “initiative” to inform so called human beings that it’s prohibited to stone or throw acid at women.”
Exactly. A couple of years back, the federal government(here in the US) had to pass a law saying genital mutilation of girls was illegal. Silly me, I just assumed cutting off someone’s genitals was already illegal. My aunt married a Canadian and lives in Canada. Up there, they say bilingualism is a big hassle and expensive yet here in the US, many want to bring it here, despite all of the problems it has caused up there. Whites have truly gone nuts!!!!!
Posted by KC at 10:01 PM on October 30
“It’s as if the Jews, the Muslims, the whatever who come here are all indisposed to the equality of men and women, and we have to tell them what’s what,” he said. “It’s cheap symbolism, and I can’t express how depressed it makes me.” I don’t think the issue is the Jews, Mr. Weinstock.
Posted by Bill at 11:27 PM on October 30
I just wonder if anyone in Quebec realizes how many black africans, muslims especially, speak French rather than English? Better take a close look at all those ex-french african colonies and just how well these citizens would blend in and ‘share values’ with the vibrant culture in Quebec as opposed to some ‘foreign’ English educated White Canadian born in, say, Nova Scotia. Looks like the Congo is once more being ‘julienned’ by the panga and since many of these ‘revolutionaries’ speak french, would they would be welcome in Quebec simply on the basis of knowing the language? If it is really necessary to advise newcomers not to throw stones or acid at women, there must be a prima facie reason to do so and that fact alone would surely de-bar entry as such cultural practices are hardly going to be eliminated simply by the adherents entering Quebec.
Posted by Yorkshireman at 1:09 AM on October 31
Here in my country (Peru) there were some conferences promoting immigration to Quebec, but the problem with Quebec would be the weather, the language and the cost of living.
Weather: Where I live temperatures are always between 57-90ºF (14-32ºC) and we don’t have rains because the Peruvian coast is a desert.
Language: You can hardly find people who speaks English so you can imagine what happens with French.
Cost of living: Here you can have a good lunch for 2 or 3 US dollars, what can I buy with $3 in Quebec?
Posted by Luis at 3:21 AM on October 31
They will already speak French if they come from Morocco, Algeria, Haiti, Cameroon, Senegal, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Rwanda, Djibouti, Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Rwanda, Burundi or any of the other countries that the have French tried to civilize over the years.
Posted by at 6:53 AM on October 31
The whole thing is a cynical pre-election ploy. Jean Charest sees a window of opportunity for destroying the opposition party (the ADQ) and this is simply one of several measures to make it seem he’s concerned about the displacement of French Quebecois culture through immigration.
Will this declaration be enforceable in a court of law? No. It is simply a list of platitudes that any immigrant can sign without fearing any consequences.
Posted by at 10:17 AM on October 31
This initiative will “prohibit violence”.
Does that include self-defense? Will they criminalize the right to defend yourself?
Quebec has stringent gun-control laws. So the only ones who have guns, will be the criminals and the police.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 11:38 AM on October 31
I’m french Canadian and Buffalonative is absolutely right. They think their identity has more to do with their language than their genes and as such would much rather have an Haitian immigrant who speaks french than anyone from the anglosphere.
If this misguided way of thinking keeps up i’m afraid it’s going to cause the downfall of Quebec.
And about the values they’re being erroded as the years go by, the values we have now aren’t our own anymore, they’ve been re-engineered like in the US and many other places in order to make us “good global citizens”, as i recently read on a banner at a junior school.
Posted by Alex at 9:33 PM on November 12