Why some say Quebec politicians helped fuel the racism they unanimously denounced

Amid all the debates and disagreements leading up to the terminate of the unawares springtime session at the subject assemblage this week, there was one issue that recently united Quebec's MNAs.

In a rare move, four political parties tabled four separate motions last week denouncing a gathering in Shawinigan, Que., captured in a photo, during which more than a dozen masked white nationalists held a banner that read, “Je me souviens d’un Québec blanc,” French for “I remember a white Quebec.”

The motions — tabled by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), Québec Solidaire, the Quebec Liberal Party, and the Parti Québécois (PQ) — were passed unanimously.

The condemnation was swift.

But observers — as well as some Quebec MNAs — have since pointed out that rhetoric from the province’s political class in recent years helped contribute to the behaviour it was denouncing.

“This is not something that [happened] in a vacuum,” said Frédéric Boisrond, a sociologist and author who follows Quebec politics.

“This is something that has been growing like a tumour for years."

The CAQ, now under premier Christine Fréchette, is nearing the end of its second term. 

Although the debate over secularism predates this government, the promotion of nationalism and what the CAQ deemed to be core Quebec values were at the heart of a long list of laws it put in place.

Bill 96 reinforced the Charter of the French Language. The law known as Bill 21 banned teachers and other civil servants from wearing religious symbols. In the aftermath of the Bedford elementary school controversy, the government passed laws to ban public prayer and extend the religious symbols ban to daycare workers as well as all school staff who interact directly with students.

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There’s also the persistent talk about immigration and how many newcomers the province should welcome on a yearly basis.

During the 2022 provincial election campaign, former premier François Legault dealt with heavy criticism after saying accepting more than 50,000 immigrants per year would be “a bit suidical” for Quebec. Legault additionally cited the threat of "extremism" and "violence," as well as the need to preserve Quebec's way of life as reasons to limit the number of immigrants to the province.

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“I’ve been hearing it too long, too often, that it’s not possible to make Quebec a country with the immigrants… And the only way to make it a country is without the immigrants,” Boisrond said, before linking that rhetoric to the recent incident in Shawinigan.

“Asking for a white Quebec, or a white society, is the expression of that.”

Quebec historian and hip hop artist Aly Ndiaye, also known as Webster, added: “I find it especially hypocritical on the part of politicians … because they’re the ones who stoked the fire over the last decade or so."

Ndiaye believes immigrants have become easy scapegoats for politicians,

“Health care — it's just cut, cut, cut, cut. And then it's crumbling. Then you say it's because of the immigrants. It's the same thing for the school system … for the housing crisis," he said, referring to the idea that the number of newcomers coming into Quebec is negatively affecting public services.

"The government is [blaming] 'immigrants' instead of being able to look at the failures of the system.”

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On the day the Quebec Liberal party tabled one of the four motions denouncing the gathering of white nationalists in Shawinigan, party leader Charles Milliard spoke of the need "to elevate the discourse and the tone, in general, of Quebec politics and Canadian politics."

Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Sol Zanetti echoed those remarks, saying politicians need to “be very careful not to say that immigrants are responsible for the housing crisis, for example, or for the pressure on public services" because those kinds of comments are violent and false.

“The housing crisis, difficulties accessing the healthcare system, problems in schools — everything is supposedly immigration's fault! For some, immigration is even seen as a threat to the survival of French in Quebec,” Fontecilla said.

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“It's not surprising that, given this normalization of anti-immigration rhetoric, far-right supremacists are trying to exploit the debate and gain a platform through these kinds of racist demonstrations.”

Following the 2017 mosque shooting in Quebec City, which left six people dead and 19 injured, there were questions about the constant political discourse about identity and religion and created a climate of intolerance in the province.

Samer Majzoub, the president and co-founder of Canadian Muslim Forum, a Montreal-based national civic engagement group, said he tried to warn politicians then that when groups are targeted for their skin colour, language, and values, “extremist elements will come out.”

Majzoub said the cross-party condemnation of the white supremacist display in Shawinigan isn’t enough. He wants to see real action.

"What is the next step after that? What [is the government] going to do? Policy-wise, rhetoric-wise, harmony-wise, inclusion-wise … stopping laws, rules and regulations that clearly are targeting citizens,” he said.

Skeete believes "racism is on the rise because the West is struggling to create employment, there's inflation, and so the blaming of the other is something that always happens … Quebec is not immune to that."

He acknowledged this means the present moment needs to be navigated very carefully.

"We have to have responsible governments, who speak out against hate when they see it, who try to move the needle forward, and who try to remove this association people have with immigration, racism and also what it means to be discriminatory."

Skeete believes, though, that there still needs to be "a serious discussion" about immigration because the province has "a limited capacity to integrate people."

"Because we’re having a discussion on whether or not we should be welcoming more immigrants into Quebec," he said, "that doesn’t mean we’re racist."

Journalist

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