– So, we (want) need immi­grants. Prefer­ably (young) not to old, (who won’t need any social help) edu­cated, and (white) who will blend in eas­ily. Oh, and (no ter­ror­ists) (prefer­ably Catholic ) — no really, we don’t mind.

Last Feb­ru­ary, the Pre­mier of Québec called a com­mis­sion to gauge the province’s feel­ing on immi­grants. Chaired by two aca­d­e­mics, Tay­lor and Bouchard, it would travel across Québec and hear the peo­ple. After a provin­cial elec­tion dom­i­nated by var­i­ous debates about immi­gra­tion, it seemed like the right thing to do. I just wish I wouldn’t hear about it every­day, cause it really makes me doubt of the world we live in.

The provin­cial gov­ern­ment inquiry (which full name is, please take a paper and a pen, I won’t repeat it — the Com­mis­sion de con­sul­ta­tion sur les pra­tiques d’accommodements reliées aux dif­férences cul­turelles — really, French isn’t that long usu­ally) is cur­rently trav­el­ing in Québec and so far read about 120 briefs and heard more than 1 000 “wit­nesses” — cit­i­zens like you and me. And trust me, they do speak their mind about the “rea­son­able accom­mo­da­tions”.

The term “rea­son­able accom­mo­da­tion” refers to the oblig­a­tion of soci­ety (employ­ers, schools etc.) to change some gen­eral rules for cer­tain peo­ple, under the con­di­tion that there is no “exces­sive con­straint”.

A lot of peo­ple ben­e­fits from these “rea­son­able accom­mo­da­tions” every­day: guide dogs are usu­ally exempt from reg­u­la­tions against the pres­ence of ani­mals in places such as restau­rants and pub­lic trans­porta­tion; most employ­ers will try to put preg­nant women in less stren­u­ous posi­tions and as a stu­dent you can usu­ally ask for addi­tional time for exams if you have a disability.

This is com­mon­sense. The com­mis­sion doesn’t chal­lenge that and nor do most peo­ple… but things turn sour when reli­gion is involved. Indeed, today’s issue revolve around the ques­tion of “rea­son­able accom­mo­da­tions” of cul­tural and reli­gious minori­ties, and where the lim­its should be drawn.

Now, would you allow a Sikh to wear his tur­ban when work­ing with the pub­lic? Would you allow employ­ees to take a day off to cel­e­brate their var­i­ous reli­gious hol­i­days? Would you allow Mus­lim girls play­ing soc­cer to wear a veil? Would you mind see­ing kosher food in your local super­mar­ket? Do you care if schools serve a vari­ety of kosher meals, veg­e­tar­ian meals, ḥalāl meal etc.? Is it okay for munic­i­pal employ­ees to say a prayer before the council?

And so the com­mis­sion is talk­ing… From the cler­gy­man who want to evan­ge­lize Que­bec again to the hard-liner athe­ist who want to remove the cross on top of the Mont Royal; from the small town in the mid­dle of nowhere which out­lawed “ston­ing and exci­sion” (!) to fed-up cit­i­zens who want to ban immi­gra­tion alto­gether… — the “us vs. them” dichotomy has never been stronger. A few Que­be­cers already pub­lished an open let­ter, voic­ing their con­cern about grow­ing expres­sions of intol­er­ance toward minori­ties in Que­bec. They don’t want to be asso­ci­ated with racists com­ments — I under­stand them.

The tar­get of the rule is more often than not Islam: reli­gious accom­mo­da­tions make the pill harder to swal­low for most people.The Quiet Rev­o­lu­tion sec­u­lar­ized the province but Que­bec still has strong catholic roots. A clash was bound to hap­pen. Today (and not for the first time) Québec fears that its iden­tity has been sac­ri­ficed at multiculturalism’s altar.

But immi­grants are immi­grants. We start from zero in a new coun­try but we can’t really erase our mem­ory, the years of tra­di­tion behind us. We have a past. “Adapt or go back home!” — I read that many times. It’s true… to a cer­tain extend. Is adapt­ing that easy, really? There’s a huge gap between the desire of some to turn their adop­tive coun­try into their native land and other that just want to see their per­sonal free­dom respected.

I like Cana­dian val­ues: a sec­u­lar soci­ety where we are all equal, the mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism and the tol­er­ance. I cer­tainly wouldn’t chal­lenge these val­ues and true, new­com­ers and locals alike should be edu­cated about them.

That said, I’m pretty sure I con­tributed to change the face of Canada. Sounds pre­ten­tious? Maybe. I did adapt to Canada: I don’t eat the same food as in France, I read Eng­lish books, go to hockey games rather than to Art Gal­leries and my mind­set changed as well. But I still buy cheese, bor­row French books from the library, I can’t bring myself to queue at Tim Horton’s to get my cup of cof­fee and I cer­tainly won’t eat before 8pm. Vol­un­tar­ily or not, I brought a bit of my French upbring­ing in Canada.

We all do, to a cer­tain extend. I’d rather not see women wear­ing the burqa, but I really don’t mind the veil. It’s none of my busi­ness if the bus dri­ver chooses to wear a tur­ban. And I know first hand that it’s not that easy to learn a for­eign lan­guage, so I don’t always expect the first gen­er­a­tion of refugees to speak per­fect Eng­lish or French. Chi­nese and Ital­ians immi­grants are well-known for their respec­tive “Chi­na­town” and “Lit­tle Italy” where we can all sam­ple eth­nic food — who’s gonna com­plain about that? Even our vocab­u­lary reflects the mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, with words such as “pasta”, “déjà-vu”, “dim sum” etc.

There are basic val­ues that should be respected, but even as a athe­ist, I don’t mind peo­ple wear­ing a cross, a kir­pan, head­gear or Satan wor­ship­ing teeshirts for that mat­ters. What you are allowed to eat is your busi­ness, not mine. And let’s just stress on the fact that a huge per­cent­age of immi­grants just want their share of the Amer­i­can dream and will blend in and enrich Canada’s cul­ture. The world is chang­ing. I don’t see a future for homo­ge­neous, tight-knit soci­eties. A country’s iden­tity isn’t some­thing still and unchange­able — it evolves through times.

Mean­while, the com­mis­sion looks more and more like a big pub­lic vent ses­sion. The major­ity fear the minor­ity. Fear for its cul­tural iden­tity. Fear that soon, they will be a minor­ity, hosts in their own country.

But where are we going with that daily dis­play of hate and xenophobia?

Related arti­cles:

1. The Cana­dian Immi­gra­tion Taboo: Those Who Go Back Home
2. Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism (7÷10)
3. Col­or­ful Boca
4. The Lonely Immigrant
5. Nui: From Thai­land to Ottawa