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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MONTREAL 000137 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y 
 
SIPDIS 
 
Ref: Montreal 132, 06 Montreal 1202 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER PHUM PINS KDEM SOCI CA
SUBJECT: Mosaic under pressure (part 2 of 2): Politicians Enter the 
fray in Quebec's debate over reasonable accommodation 
 
 
MONTREAL 00000137  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
This message is Sensitive but Unclassified 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (SBU) This is the second part of our examination of the debate 
over "reasonable accommodation," the political catch-all term for 
the building tension between Quebec's identity as a "secular" 
society and the perceived need to shape its rules and values to 
"accommodate" religious or cultural considerations. The debate has 
become more than a social and cultural phenomenon, and politicians 
across the ideological spectrum are positioning themselves vis-`-vis 
this issue, which is likely to remain important long after Quebec's 
March 26 election day.  Mario Dumont, head of the Action 
Democratique du Quebec (ADQ), was the first to grab this political 
hot potato, with an open letter to the Quebec public that cited 
examples of "unreasonable accommodation." Premier Charest and the 
Quebec Liberal Party, and Andre Boisclair, head of the Parti 
Quebecois (PQ) soon followed suit with their own vision of what can 
be considered "reasonable" in Quebec's multicultural society. 
 
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"Reasonable" accommodation and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms 
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¶2. (SBU) In mid-February, the McGill Institute for the Study of 
Canada took advantage of its planned conference on the Canadian 
Charter of Rights and Freedoms' 25th anniversary to organize a 
public forum on reasonable accommodation, which CBC Radio hosted and 
aired. The panel included Rabbi Ronnie Fine, Sarah Elgazzar, a 
Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations representative, 
journalist Laura-Julie Perreault, and Julius Grey, a constitutional 
lawyer and civil liberties advocate. Other religious leaders and PQ, 
ADQ, and Liberal party representatives participated and asked to 
defend their positions. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The panelists pointed out Francophone insecurities as a 
minority group, "pure laine" or old-stock Quebecois attitudes 
causing isolation of immigrants, the general publicQs lack of 
knowledge of minorities, distorted views of rural Quebeckers, and an 
irresponsible media competing to find the next alleged instance of 
reasonable accommodation, while paying little heed to more practical 
issues, such as underemployment among immigrants. Grey concluded the 
problem is multiculturalism, which has discouraged integration of 
immigrants. As the McGill Institute summarized: "Although he said he 
is in favor of integration, Grey noted that reasonable accommodation 
is a legal right under the charter and 'a refusal of reasonable 
accommodation is a refusal of equality a form of exclusion,' which 
could have a practical effect like denial of employment.  Reasonable 
accommodation is not about 'silly' demands like getting rid of the 
word Christmas or Christmas trees, he said.  Real inclusion is 
economic. Your origin should not be a prediction of your wealth. 
Grey noted that he himself is an immigrant who came to Canada from 
Poland in 1957 at age nine." Grey, who was the lawyer advocating for 
the young sikh boysQ right to wear the kirpan at school, reiterated 
the same arguments to CG, Country PAO, and post PAO during a private 
conversation. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Quebec Council on Intercultural Relations, whose 
mission is to study the integration of cultural communities in the 
province and make policy recommendations to the Quebec government, 
attributes the tension over the issue of reasonable accommodation 
fundamentally to the simple fact that more groups are sharing the 
same space and bumping into each other more frequently.  Ironically, 
however, much of the tension over the definition of reasonable 
accommodation has originated in places, like Herouxville (a small, 
rural town in Quebec whose elected council developed a "code of 
conduct" for immigrants--see reftel), which have few to no 
immigrants.  According to this view, Quebec is simply catching up to 
other parts of the Western world on the issue, citing similar 
multicultural societiesQ growing pains and debates in France and the 
Netherlands.  Meanwhile, Quebec's Catholic bishops told the media 
that confusion between culture and religion is what is fuelling the 
current debate on the way Quebecers welcome immigrants and integrate 
them in society, and challenged other religious groups to clearly 
define their identity and distinguish between strictly religious 
customs and cultural ones. 
 
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Liberal, PQ, and ADQ candidates chime in 
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¶5. (SBU) Mario Dumont, head of the political party Action 
Democratique du Quebec (ADQ), hit on underlying anxieties and struck 
a chord with Qold stockQ Quebeckers, and some say simultaneously 
gained unprecedented popularity for his party, when he wrote an open 
letter to the Quebec public on reasonable accommodation in January, 
stating that Quebec should quit bending over backwards to 
accommodate minorities. Dumont cited one example of what he 
 
MONTREAL 00000137  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
considered "unreasonable accommodation" - the exclusion of 
fathers-to-be from prenatal classes at one Montreal-area community 
center in order to accommodate the presence of Muslim, Hindu, and 
Sikh expectant mothers (which actually turned out to be urban myth, 
though few have corrected the record) and challenged Quebeckers to 
more clearly define a "frame of reference" for Quebec's values and 
the lengths Quebeckers should go to when accommodating immigrants. 
One Montrealer wrote to La Presse: "We're tired of empty political 
shells who have no firm positionFor us, Mario Dumont is a breath of 
fresh air." Although Dumont's political rivals strongly dislike him, 
and his statements about the need to limit accommodations for 
immigrants have proved immensely controversial in Montreal, they 
have won him some support in Quebec's rural regions and among urban 
dwellers who fear their own rights have been encroached upon through 
concessions to newcomers to the province. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Premier Charest and the Liberal party in Quebec have sought 
to turn down the volume on this to remind Quebeckers that reasonable 
accommodation for religious minorities is no different in principle 
than accommodations for physically handicapped persons. He also 
noted, however, that "The Quebec nation has values, solid values, 
including the equality of women and men; the primacy of French; the 
separation between the state and religion. These values are 
fundamental. They cannot be the object of any accommodation. They 
cannot be subordinated to any other principle." 
 
¶7. (SBU) In response to the public furor and media frenzy 
surrounding the code of conduct for immigrants drawn up by the 
elected council of the tiny town of Herouxville (see reftel), 
Premier Charest created a one-year commission to study reasonable 
accommodation in Quebec, headed by Charles Taylor, a McGill 
University professor emeritus of philosophy and Gerard Bouchard, an 
historian and sociologist. For many, the high caliber academics 
chosen was evidence enough that Charest recognizes the seriousness 
and political importance of reasonable accommodation as an issue for 
Quebeckers. Others, like well-respected Association for Canadian 
Studies Director Dr. Jack Jedwab, surmised that Charest's decision 
to set up the Commission was so he would not have to deal with 
reasonable accommodation during the electoral campaign. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities Lise 
Theriault made a concerted effort to explain what is, and what is 
not, reasonable accommodation.  Minister Theriault deemed most of 
the high profile cases gracing press reports in recent weeks (ref A) 
to be "unreasonable," especially those having to do with equality 
between men and women, such as recent cases involving policewomen, 
female ER doctors and drivers' license examiners being replaced by 
male counterparts to accommodate the wishes of members of religious 
minorities, the frosting of YMCA gym windows, the practice of using 
only male police officers in dealing with Hasidic Jewish men, and as 
well as the case of a man who was asked to leave a swimming pool so 
Muslim women could swim (a topic treated with sympathetic humor in a 
recent episode of CBC TV's new sitcom, "Little Mosque on the 
Prairie"). When confronted during a television interview with the 
issue of a crucifix that still hangs in the National Assembly, 
(making it difficult for immigrants to truly believe religion and 
the state are separate in Quebec, according to the hosts), Theriault 
replied that the crucifix represents the 400-year history of the 
building of the province, a history Quebeckers need not deny to 
welcome immigrants. Her TV program hosts pounced on this response as 
contradictory and shaky. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Meanwhile, Andre Boisclair, head of the Parti Quebecois 
(PQ), has publicly blamed Charest for pandering to Quebecers who 
balk at adjustments made for immigrants and chimed in to advocate 
that the cross decorating the National Assembly since 1936 should be 
removed in the interests of removing all religious symbols from 
public space.  Despite Quebec's identity as a "secular" province, 
Boisclair's suggestion proved immensely unpopular; he eventually 
retracted it after realizing that he had misjudged Quebeckers' 
desire to break ranks with tradition and religious symbolism. 
Boisclair tried to argue that it cannot be reasonable accommodation, 
if it has nothing to do with public services: "In a diverse society, 
religious symbols have no place in public space." Issues as 
seemingly mundane as the composition of traditional Quebec pea soup 
came into play on the campaign trail, when Boisclair was asked to 
comment on the decision by a sugar shack owner ("cabane a sucre" or 
sugar shack is a Quebec institution serving foods like meat pie and 
baked beans during maple sugar season) to offer a special batch of 
pea soup without ham and pork products so that his Muslim clientele 
could experience this beloved Quebec tradition.  Boisclair, after 
insisting that the State has no place getting involved with a 
decision by a private company to accommodate a minority request, did 
note that "someone who is running a cabane a sucre and is not 
serving ham will have a real tough time in life." 
 
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Comment 
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MONTREAL 00000137  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) The political dimension of the "reasonable accommodation" 
debate might be attributed to political opportunism on the part of 
candidates who view the topic as a fickle, easily manipulated 
election issue. Regardless of who wins the election, the deeper 
tensions underlying this debate represent demographic and political 
trends that characterize Quebec's mosaic under pressure, and are 
likely to remain a hot political topic. 
MARSHALL