O Canada - Beware These Revelations

This is perhaps more, much more than we anticipated. Fulsomely, shamefully more than we might have expected to hear. Ours is, after all, a population accustomed to the introduction of immigrants, the acceptance of others. We welcome immigrants to this great vast, meagerly populated geography, and always have done, though the countries of exit and emigration are not now what they once were.

We are now truly a country comprised of multifarious cultures, traditions, ethologies, religions. We revel in those very differences as a nation, proudly multicultural, a mosaic of humankind living in fairly good-natured harmony. At least such was the prevailing opinion in reflection of what seemed once to be our reality.

Yes, there have always been elements in the population of "old stock" Anglo-Saxon heritage, suspicious of newcomers, tardy in their acceptance of the "others", but this country has seen a great turn-about in its recognition of the quality of humankind wherever their origin. We are a free people, a proud people, committed to social justice and inclusion.

We value our pluralism, our heritage, our willingness to embrace others and help make a place for them for there is so much "place" in this country to inhabit and to share.

Still, the world has seen a great fit of fear and suspicion descend upon our shoulders. The result of which has been an uncomfortable, sometimes difficult to contain backlash of resentment and further suspicion of foreigners, those who have come to our shores to partake of its natural resources, the beauty of this land, and the opportunities that await them here.

Opportunities often slow to bear fruit, although the land continues to.

Rumblings of discontent and accusations bordering on outright hostility coming from rural portions of Quebec stimulated an public enquiry, a travelling commission headed by two highly respected academics; Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor. Public hearings have revealed some good will and a good deal of ill will targeting immigrants.

People have aired their grievances about the presence of unwanted traditions and strange symbols in their once-homogeneous society: Muslim headscarves, Jewish kosher food, Sikh ceremonial daggers. Headgear and body coverings which are so starkly at odds with what is considered the norm that they draw hostility and censure at their presence. How parochial can we be? Diluting the purity of the overwhelming French presence and heritage.

The Muslim community, already fearful as a result of backlash at their presence and their demands for sensitive accommodation, feel the impact of these revelations as a catastrophe for them personally. Yet there is, in large part, some common sense in the expectations expressed by some presentations; why is it, after all, that immigrants seem loathe to integrate more readily into the larger society? Our values after all, are fairly universal.

Still there is an overwhelming, discomfiting feeling on the part of civil volunteer groups helping immigrants and refugees adjust to their adopted country that a seriously discriminatory malaise has been unveiled by the commission. "There is a distrust of immigrants.... At the extremes, there was racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia. That was hard to listen to."

Unsurprisingly, and as a result, immigrants are beginning to re-think their futures in Quebec, wondering whether they should pull up and settle elsewhere, in another province.

Tellingly, one man pointed out that when the Bouchard-Taylor commission set out, it was Quebecers whose fears were being aired - of their threatened social-cultural identity. Now it is immigrants who realize fear for the future of their families in a social-political atmosphere of paranoia. At the same time, there are other Quebecers who express shock at the revelations: "I had believed I was heir to an open, welcoming, freedom-loving culture. I have heard too many comments from my fellow citizens that have called that into question."

There has been another kind of response too, from immigrants. A more positive one, finally expressing some realization that there are reasonable expectations in this society from Muslims upon whom the greater part of suspicion has settled. Groups are beginning to coalesce, to organize themselves in a way that they can collectively determine to avoid what appears to be exaggerated demands for special treatment in a sensitive environment.

Most important of all, an understanding is beginning to set in that they have a responsibility to themselves as well as to the larger community to become more involved in reining in the activities of "preachers of hate". There is now a self-acknowledged need to protest at the presence of fundamentalist imams at local mosques who address the faithful with corrupted and distorted interpretations of the Koran. And who preach animosity against the non-Muslim society.

"We do suggest that there be limits to what [Muslim] preachers say. They should adapt to the reality here and understand the realities of Quebec society", according to Abdallah Annab, president of the Association des marocaines et des marocains de l'Estrie, speaking before the commission. "Because what happens sometimes - and we don't know how they wind up here - is that preachers come here to preach hate.

"And we must insist on this point, that people who give religious instruction be informed, and that there be some kind of control over what they say."

Finally.