Municipalities, rights groups concerned about Quebec bill on integrating immigrants

Quebec municipalities and human rights groups are voicing concerns about proposed legislation that would require newcomers to abide by a set of common values.

They say the new bill on cultural integration could foster anti-immigrant sentiment and impose a heavy administrative burden on communities.

The bill, tabled in January by Quebec's right-leaning Coalition Avenir Québec government, would have immigrants adhere to shared values including gender equality, secularism and protection of the French language. The legislation is the latest in a series of bills that aim to reinforce Quebec identity, following the province's secularism law and its overhaul of the language law.

It's intended as Quebec's answer to the Canadian model of multiculturalism that promotes cultural diversity, which the government believes is harmful to social cohesion in Quebec. Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge has said he wants to avoid cultural "ghettos."

It would also allow the government to make public funding contingent on adherence to a forthcoming integration policy.

Roberge has suggested, for example, that festivals could have their funding cut if they don't promote Quebec's common culture. That part of the bill has prompted concerns from organizations representing Quebec municipalities, which say it encroaches on municipal autonomy.

The Union des municipalités du Quebec is calling on the government to scrap that part of the legislation outright.

Meanwhile, the Fédération québécoise des municipalités wants the funding requirement to be limited to cultural programs and those related to integrating immigrants. They say it would be difficult to review every funding application for adherence to the policy.

Pierre Châteauvert, policy director with the federation, told a legislative committee last week that municipalities are already struggling under the weight of laws and policies they have to apply.

"The burden causes you to become paralyzed. You paralyze the system," he said. "This is what we are currently experiencing."

The federation says it supports the objectives of the cultural integration bill. But it also wants the government to increase spending on French-language classes for immigrants, many of which were cancelled last fall due to lack of funding. Critics have said those cuts run counter to Quebec's goals of integration.

Other groups claim the legislation goes beyond integration toward a desire to assimilate.

In an interview, spokesperson Laurence Guenette of the Ligue des droits et libertés, a Quebec human rights group, said Quebec is using the bill "to create a more homogenic culture." She said it will stoke fears that newcomers are putting Quebec values at risk.

The organization recently published its objections to the bill in a news release, which has since been signed by 95 civil society groups.