Systemic racism hearings will proceed: Couillard
The systemic racism hearings set up by the Quebec government for this fall will proceed because people have a right to be heard, says Premier Philippe Couillard.
One day after sparking consternation among minority groups for saying the hearing process will be rethought, Couillard tried to clarify himself, insisting Quebec is not backing down.
“Abandoning the idea of consultations on systemic discrimination is out of the question,” Couillard said in the National Assembly. “Out of the question.
“It’s important that people be heard, that experts be heard. What I want is a consultation which leads us to concrete results — on employment, which is where my colleague (Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil) has made proposals.”
Cutting back on the process would also be “insulting” to the many groups who have been preparing to testify, Couillard added. It would not be acceptable to say to them, ‘Forget it, don’t come and tell us about what you have experienced in your daily life,’ ” he said.
Couillard made the remarks in answering a question from Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée, who sought clarification on remarks Couillard made Wednesday about the hearings, which seemed to put the hearings in doubt.
“What we want to do is reconnect the process with the results we want to achieve,” Couillard said Wednesday, insisting that despite the opposition’s view, the government is not putting Quebecers on trial for racism or discrimination.
Asked Wednesday if he was considering scrapping the whole process, Couillard left the door wide open: “We’ll get back to you on this,” he said.
But Lisée said Thursday that if anyone should be insulted it is Quebecers, because some of the groups the government has subcontracted to conduct the hearings are on the record as saying Quebec society is anti-Islam and xenophobic.
Couillard refused to play along, instead reading out the names of other groups on the list who have come forward.
“Why does he want to gag these groups,” Couillard asked. “I believe the leader of the opposition is quite ill at ease with the issue on the table, discrimination, for obvious reasons.”
Couillard was alluding to the PQ’s own failed attempt to set up a charter of Quebec values that would have prohibited religious minorities from wearing religious attire in the public sector.
Couillard, however, said the government won’t let the hearings turn into a circus.
“We are going to listen to these people and if someone comes along and says during the hearings that Quebecers are a racist people, they will be told it’s not true by me specifically and everyone else.”
The government has mandated the Quebec Human Rights commission to pick the 31 groups to conduct the hearings all over Quebec. The idea is to gather real-life testimonials. Besides roving the province to hear witnesses, the commission also plans to hear from expert witnesses and hold a forum in November.
The committee is to present its findings in the winter.
After question period, the government offered no further details on possible changes to the hearings.
On Wednesday, a coalition of groups fighting discrimination reacted to Couillard’s remarks by urging him to not back down on the hearings and, above all, keep partisan politics out of the hearings.
On Thursday, another group, the Collectif Canadien Anti-Islamophobie, issued their own statement, saying what’s needed now is action on racism and not more talk.
Couillard’s shift was brought on by the party’s electoral loss Monday to the Coalition Avenir Québec in the riding of Louis-Hébert, which some MNAs blamed on the bad optics of the racism hearings.