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Quebec municipalities and human rights groups are voicing concerns about proposed legislation that would require newcomers to abide by a set of common values.
Toronto Star reports that the concerns are that the new bill on cultural integration could foster anti-immigration sentiment and impose a heavy administrative burden on communities.
The bill was tabled in January by Quebec’s right-leaning Coalition Avenir Quebec government. It would have immigrants adhere to shared values including gender equality, secularism and protection of the French language. The legislation is the latest in a series of bills that aim to reinforce Quebec’s identity after the province’s secularism law and its overhaul of the language law.
It’s intended as Quebec’s answer to the Canadian model of multiculturalism that promotes cultural diversity, which the government believes is harmful to social cohesion in Quebec. It would also allow the government to make public funding contingent on adherence to a forthcoming immigration policy.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Quebecoise des Municipalites wants the funding to be limited to cultural programs and those related to integrating immigrants. According to them, it would be difficult to review every funding application for adherence to the policy.
The federation says it supports the objectives of the cultural integration bill. However, it also wants the government to increase spending on French language classes for immigrants. Critics have said those cuts run counter to Quebec’s goals of integration.
Other groups claim the legislation goes beyond integration toward a desire to assimilate. A spokesperson Laurence Guenette of the Ligue des droits et libertes, a Quebec human rights group, said Quebec is using the bill “to create a more homogenic culture.” She said it will stoke fears that newcomers are putting Quebec values at risk.
Last month, 30 academic and political figures also signed an open letter claiming the bill has “assimilation tendencies.”
The Quebec Charter has been modified many times since it was passed by the provincial legislature 50 years ago. Unlike the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which can only be modified through a constitutional amendment, the Quebec Charter is a bill like any other that can be altered by the government of the day.
Anglophone groups have also expressed concerns about the integration bill, saying it appears to restrict the definition of Quebec culture and heritage to the French language. “We feel like we are being erased from history,” the Quebec Community Groups Network said in a recent brief to the committee.
