Drimonis: CAQ's vision of integration looks disconnected from reality

Montreal Gazette

a day ago

As part of the Coalition Avenir Québec's ever-growing list of policies aimed at dictating how new Quebecers should act, live and look, a new bill has been added to the mix. Bill 84 — ' an act respecting national integration ' — aims to define a Quebec integration model the government says will be 'distinct from Canadian multiculturalism.'
While announcing the bill, Immigration, Francization and Integration Minister Jean-François Roberge gleefully stated multiculturalism has been relegated to the 'limbo of history.'
All I can say is: Good luck with that.
While it's true that multiculturalism — a policy enshrined in federal legislation in 1988 — is seen by some Quebecers as malicious and aiming to undermine the majority culture and the French language, it's ultimately also a sociological reality.
Multiculturalism is the organic byproduct of a pluralistic society that contains multiple languages, ethnicities, faiths and cultures. You cannot have a country or province actively benefiting from immigration for centuries without naturally evolving into a place where a multitude of differences coexist.
Neither can you have language policy actively forcing newcomers to send their kids to French school and then be blindsided when these now-French-speaking 'neo-Quebecers' also start influencing the province's majority culture with elements of theirs.
One quick look at Montreal and so much of what makes it shine is precisely its diversity and plurality. We didn't become one of the most exciting cities in North America by dimming our light, by making ourselves identical, by intentionally stifling our creative, culinary and cultural differences and artificially removing what makes us different to appease an enforced vision of homogeneity.
While the CAQ says Bill 84 was 'inspired by interculturalism,' that concept — like multiculturalism — allows room for a society where different cultures feel welcome to coexist and thrive. Does Roberge expect us to believe that is the intent of this bill or any other it has advanced relating to language, education and secularism? Or do the actions of this government point to a majority culture to which all others must conform?
To be fair, the goal of a 'common society' isn't unique to Quebec. Setting aside questions of language, what the CAQ touts as 'Quebec values' are pretty much the same across Canada: respect for human rights, gender equality and adherence to the law. So while immigrants might be expected to retain markers of their culture, there's an equal expectation that they try to integrate and participate fully in Canadian society.
In the end, immigrants' behaviour won't be dictated by some federal model of multiculturalism — and neither will it be defined by the CAQ's attempts to assimilate or remove elements of other cultures and languages.
Maybe this government lacks a basic understanding of human psychology and behaviour. The overwhelming majority of immigrants — regardless of where they come from — work hard to integrate. But it's only natural that they also might continue to value and safeguard their mother tongue, culture and traditions. Just like a francophone Quebecer would if they were to emigrate elsewhere.
You wouldn't amputate fundamental parts of who you are the minute you cross a border; to expect others to do so is not only absurd, it's also unworkable.
Sure, the CAQ can make good on vaguely worded threats to withhold funding from cultural events that fall short of what the Quebec government deems such events should look like. But that won't stop newcomers with a plurality of identities from including other languages, cultures and traditions in their evolving version of what it means to be a Quebecer.
A recent headline on the satire site The Beaverton says it all: 'Quebec passes bill requiring immigrants to not be different.'
You know it's bad when satire starts to look like reality.