'Reasonable accommodation' in Québec: The limits of participation and dialogue

Race and Class

Volumn 52, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 85-96

  Mahrouse, Gada ^a  

^a Simone DeBeauvoir Institute   (Canada)

Author keywords

Bouchard Taylor Commission; Interculturalism; Secularism; Tolerance

Indexed keywords

EID: 77954578320     PISSN: 03063968     EISSN: 17413125     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0306396810371768     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Earlier versions of this article were presented at Community convergence on reasonable accommodation: a panel discussion on racism in Québec' (Centre Communautaire Musulman de Montreal, 8 December 2007) and at 'Feminist responses to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission (McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, Montreal, 20 November 2008).
2. G. Bouchard and C. Taylor, Building the Future: a time for reconciliation (Québec City, Gouvernement du Québec, 2008), p. 117.
3. N. Kelley and M.J. Trebilcock, The Making of the Mosaic: a history of Canadian immigration policy (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1998), p. 392.
4. V. Satzewich and N. Liodakis, 'Race' and Ethnicity in Canada: a critical introduction (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 137.
5. Immigrant debate has gone too far: Charest, CBC News (6 February 2007), .
6. Bouchard and Taylor, op. cit, p. 18.
7. Ibid, p. 17.
8. Ibid, p. 17.
9. Ibid, p. 17.See Satzewich and Liodakis, op. cit, pp. 136-8.
10. Bouchard and Taylor, op. cit, pp. 219-38.
11. Ibid, p. 22.
12. Ibid, p. 17.
13. Let's move on, says Québec accommodation commission, CBC News (22 may 2008), .
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Although some Quebecers object to being called Canadian, I use this terminology because it is consistent with what is used in the report. Although this debate largely involved French-Canadian Quebecers, on the one hand, and immigrant and minority populations, on the other, many Quebecers of Anglo-European descent also expressed concern about immigrant and minority cultures tainting the Québec way of life.
17. For more information about the connected histories of First Nations people and immigrant communities in Québec, see D. Stasiulis and R. Jhappan, The fractious politics of a settler society: Canada in D. Stasiulis and N. Yuval-Davis, eds, Unsettling Settler Societies: articulations of gender, race, ethnicity and class (London, Sage, 1995), pp. 95-131.
18. Bouchard and Taylor, op. cit, p. 34.
19. Bouchard-Taylor Commission citizen's forums: absence of a notable divide between Montréal and the rest of Québec (19 December 2007), .
20. Bouchard and Taylor, op. cit., p. 36.
21. Ibid., p. 38.
22. Ibid., p. 37.
23. Montreal Gazette (8 September 2007).
24. G. Hage, White Nation: fantasies of White supremacy in a multicultural society(Sydney, Pluto Press, 1998). p. 102.
25. E. Said, Orientalism(London, Routledge, 1978). p. 109.
26. Professor Daniel Weinstock of the Université de Montréal made this observation at a symposium on the Bouchard-Taylor Commission organised by the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, 20 November 2008.
27. S. Razack, Looking White People in the Eye: gender, race and culture in courtrooms and classrooms (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1998); G. Dei, Anti-Racism Education: theory and practice (Halifax, NS, Fernwood, 1996).
28. In a similar way to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, this consultation was prompted by concerns that the nation's heritage and Canadian culture were being eroded by the growing diversity of immigrants and the promotion of their cultures. S. Thobani, Exalted Subjects: studies in the making of race and nation in Canada(Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2007).
29. This sentiment was expressed at meetings held by Resisting Intolerance in Québec at the Communautaire Musulman de Montreal, October 2007.
30. Bouchard and Taylor, op. cit, p. 18.
31. Ibid, p. 185.
32. I am grateful to Sean Mills for this observation.
33. V. Satzewich and Liodakis, op. cit, p. 32-4.
34. T. Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity (Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2003).
35. S. Razack, The sharia law debate in Ontario: the modernity/premodernity distinction in legal efforts to protect women from culture, Feminist Legal Studies (Vol. 15, no. 1, 2007), pp. 3-32.
36. S. Razack, Casting Out: the eviction of Muslims from western law and politics (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2008).
37. Edward Said, 'The clash of ignorance', Nation (22 October 2001), .
38. A. Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism(London and New York, Routledge, 1998); S. Arat-Koc, 'Hot potato: imperial wars or benevolent interventions? Reflections on global feminism post September 11th', Atlantis (Vol. 26, no. 2, 2002), pp. 433-44.; L. Abu-Lughod, 'Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others', in V. Taylor, N. Whittier and L. Richardson, eds, Feminist Frontiers(Boston, MA, McGraw-Hill, 2007), pp. 484-93.
39. In Québec, many francophone feminists have tied their feminism to the project of establishing a sovereign Québec state. D. Stasiulis, 'Relational positionalities of nationalisms, racisms and feminisms',in C. Kaplan, N. Alarcon and M. Moallem, eds, Between Woman and Nation: nationalisms, transnational feminisms and the state(Durham and London, Duke University Press, 1999), pp. 183-212.
40. In December 2007, Bill 63, an Act to amend the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, was tabled by Christine St Pierre, the minister ofculture, communications and the status of women.
41. J. Scott, The Politics of the Veil(Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2007); S. Razack, 'The 'Sharia Law Debate' in Ontario', op. cit. Professor Alia Al Saji of McGill University spoke about this dynamic at a symposium on the Bouchard-Taylor Commission organised by the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, 20 November 2008.
42. Kevin Dougherty, We'll keep crucifix up, Charest says, Montreal Gazette (23 May 2008), .
43. Bouchard and Taylor, op. cit, p. 75.
44. Ibid, p. 38.
45. Ibid, p. 221.