Thread: French Canadians Vocal About Immigrants

The French Canadians do not want to be told what to do by immigrants and are becoming vocal.

Immigration panel hears intolerance
Attempt to heal divisions in Quebec may have backfired
By IAN AUSTEN | The New York Times
December 23, 2007

MONTREAL - Viewed separately, the incidents seemed insignificant. Members of a Hasidic synagogue wanted a neighboring YMCA to block or tint the windows of an exercise room used by women.

A Muslim girl was barred from playing soccer for wearing a hijab on the field. And in Quebec City, some Muslims and Orthodox Jews refused to deal with police officers and physicians of the opposite sex.

Then came the decision in late January by Herouxville, Quebec — a town of French-speaking Catholics — to create a code of conduct for immigrants that prohibited, among other things, the covering of women's faces except on Halloween, and the use of public stoning as a form of punishment. This despite the fact that there are no Muslims in the town and no modern history of stonings.

The move offended many Muslims in Quebec and prompted a wide, and not always temperate, debate among the French-speaking majority about the role of immigrants in the province. After a political opponent took up the anti-immigrant backlash as his cause, Premier Jean Charest of Quebec responded by creating a commission to discuss immigration concerns. But rather than quell the debate, it may have made matters worse.

At a series of public, televised meetings that began in August and ended this month, the Quebec Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences heard several reasoned suggestions for improving relations. Still, its sessions proved irresistible for the xenophobic. Their frustrations and fears, particularly about the province's Muslim and Jewish populations, sometimes turned the commission's meetings into a bigots' roadshow in the view of minority leaders.

"People are now more divided than they were a year ago, that is without question," said Sameer Zuberi, the human rights coordinator of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Over one year, people's opinions have formed, and it's really going to take a while for that to melt away."

The panel will make recommendations in March on the integration of other cultures.

"It's giving us a fair amount of anxiety," said Charles Taylor, a professor emeritus at McGill University who along with historian and sociologist Gerard Bouchard leads the commission.

Neither Taylor nor Bouchard have indicated what they may recommend.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nation ... 6217.story

I think people from different countries should cooperate on self-defense against immigration destroying their livelihood and culture.

I think in many ways you can keep your culture but when immigrants demand their changes then it becomes an issue. Growing up us children of immigrants were taught the language of our parents and culture but when we were in public we spoke English. We did not demand anything from the community but rather our communities built their churches or temples, halls, cultural centers with loans and donations. That is where we learned our religion and language. Even on our holidays if we chose to do so we took vacation time to have the day off. When I started school I did not speak English and had to work hard or fail a grade. There was no English as a second language program, no free tutoring as my parents couldn't help me and adults would work and pay to go to school at night to learn to read, write and speak English. What a difference from today.

Swatchick,

I think we all feel that things our out of control. Many new immigrants are being encouraged not to adapt to their new country and what worse they are being set on the native population.

Secondly, I'm from a small European nation and we could effectively perish due to the immigration in less than twenty years. Where shall I go then? What about the future of my children?

And they are bad things going on in our world.

We have a lot of to do.

Originally Posted by swatchick

I think in many ways you can keep your culture but when immigrants demand their changes then it becomes an issue. Growing up us children of immigrants were taught the language of our parents and culture but when we were in public we spoke English. We did not demand anything from the community but rather our communities built their churches or temples, halls, cultural centers with loans and donations. That is where we learned our religion and language. Even on our holidays if we chose to do so we took vacation time to have the day off. When I started school I did not speak English and had to work hard or fail a grade. There was no English as a second language program, no free tutoring as my parents couldn't help me and adults would work and pay to go to school at night to learn to read, write and speak English. What a difference from today.

lugundum -

Secondly, I'm from a small European nation and we could effectively perish due to the immigration in less than twenty years. Where shall I go then? What about the future of my children

We may have twenty years here in America - I don't think so. This next election will probably seal our fate - one way or another.

I think its rather odd that the muslims and the mexicans both act in this demanding way..it's almost like they have been coached by the same entity.

Originally Posted by Rockfish

I think its rather odd that the muslims and the mexicans both act in this demanding way..it's almost like they have been coached by the same entity.

They smell our weakness and the fact that we are just in between jaws of leftists/liberals and corporate interests.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

lugundum -

Secondly, I'm from a small European nation and we could effectively perish due to the immigration in less than twenty years. Where shall I go then? What about the future of my children

We may have twenty years here in America - I don't think so. This next election will probably seal our fate - one way or another.

Apparently, we have a lot of to do