Last stop for reasonable accommodation

After slogging its way through 16 other towns and cities — 14 of which were nowhere near Greater Montreal, the only place in Quebec with a large concentration of immigrants — the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation has finally landed on the island. Since it began its work in late August, the commission has been criticized by many for providing a platform for bigots, racists and xenophobes to rant against immigrants and minorities in Quebec. Throughout the province’s rural regions, the commission’s public forums were plagued by so many complaints about Jews and, in particular, the mythical “kosher tax” that supposedly inflates the prices of everyday grocery items, that Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor took to lecturing people about anti-Semitism.

Now, though, it’s clear there has been a shift in the tenor of discourse. So far, the two public forums held in Montreal — the first, last week, at Côte des Neiges’ Intercultural Library and the second, yesterday, at the Palais des congrès — have been dominated by immigrants and members of ethnic minorities. They are, by and large, concerned about access to the job market, discrimination and simply being accepted as equal citizens. Farah Abdill, a Somali refugee who spoke at the Côte des Neiges forum, put it bluntly when he said, in impeccable French, “Je voudrais être Québécois, mais je suis noir. Demain, si je dis ‘Je suis Québécois,’ la question qui suit, c’est ‘Tu viens d’où?'”

What has been missing, until now, is first-hand testimony from Quebec’s minorities. It’s refreshing, then, to read Patrick Lagacé’s ongoing series of columns, “Voile maudit,” in La Presse. Don’t let the name fool you: Lagacé’s goal is to break stereotypes, not reinforce them. He has hit the streets to talk with ordinary Muslim Montrealers about issues of faith, culture and politics. What he has found, unsurprisingly, is that Muslims are a generally diverse, polyglot and open-minded bunch of people. Yesterday, he met with a young Maghrebian man named Ghasser who is an athiest but still holds his Arab culture dear. Today, he encountered an Algerian shopowner and his friend, a Crescent Street doorman, in Little Maghreb, the emerging North African strip along Jean Talon between St. Michel and Pie IX.

We need to see more of this stuff: honest, down-to-earth encounters with the millions of individual people who make up this city. How else will we ever understand the complexities and realities of where we live?

UPDATE: This afternoon, the commission heard from an Outremont man who prepared a 90-page document listing all of his grievances with his Hasidic Jewish neighbours.

“Pierre Lacerte, a resident of Hutchison St., said Hasidic Jews who live in Outremont flout municipal regulations but escape with impunity. Lacerte claimed that Hasidim get away with such things as illegally built synagogues and schools, inter-city school buses circulating on residential streets, and unpaid parking tickets,” reports the Gazette. “Lacerte submitted a 90-page brief on behalf of 158 Outremont residents detailing what he called ‘abuses’ by Jews. But he asked commissioners Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor not to make public the names of the signatories, out of fear of reprisals.”

What a pisher. On behalf of all Mile End/Outremont residents who don’t have a grudge against the Hasidim, and who actually appreciate their presence: give us a break.

Photo by Tatiana Gomez