Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - February 2007
Quebec Human Rights Commission to investigate “reasonable accommodation” of immigrants
The Quebec Human Rights Commission will conduct research on the topic of accommodation of newcomers to the province in an effort to “separate fact from fiction.” The project’s details are yet to be officially revealed, but is said to be aimed at getting “an accurate picture of the situation” by gathering stories of specific experience from organizations that deal with immigrant communities. The consultation and research could take months.
The consultation will follow a series of highly controversial and widely debated stories on the “reasonable accommodation” of immigrants to the provice, namely a commission decision last year not to move forward with a complaint by Muslim students who wanted a designated prayer space at the Ecole de technologie superieure de Montreal and the more recent media-fuelled uproar over Herouxville’s code of conduct for newcomers. The commission has not received a formal complaint regarding the code, which spells out how immigrants must fit in with Quebec society, but recognizes people’s anxiety over the “strain”of increased immigration.
The hearings are supposed to provide a “more reasoned forum” to debate the issues surrounding the real and imagined problems of accommodating immigrants. According to commission spokesperson Robert Sylvestre, “the debate is now fuelled by rumour and fear, and is not based on fact.” No one has actually been keeping track of the number and nature of accommodation requests by individuals and groups in Quebec, he says.
Source:
“Immigration hearings aim to sort fact from fiction.”
The Gazette, Thursday, February 08, 2007.
