Legault’s quick-fix approach to battling racism won’t work
There’s the slow, humble, grassroots approach to fighting racism and then there’s Quebec Premier François Legault’s expedient way.
On a day that Mayor Valérie Plante announced a historic motion at city council to formally acknowledge the extent of systemic racism in Montreal in response to a wide-ranging report after a vast public consultation, Legault chimed in with his own swift remedy to a problem he won’t admit exists.
He appointed seven members of his government — including three Black members of his caucus, a white woman representing Indigenous issues, a white MNA from a rural riding, and two white former police officers — to tackle racism in Quebec.
According to their mandate, they are to dispense with any time-consuming debate about definitions or whether it’s “systemic.” Quebecers, as Legault has stated already, are not racist. Sure, there may be a few vieux monocles with retrograde views, but his task force is not to put Quebec society on trial. The team is to proceed directly to action with a plan expected by fall.
The premier’s hasty announcement is aimed at quelling the growing unrest spreading across North America after the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Protesters have poured into the streets of Montreal three weekends running demanding justice for similar rights violations here.
“Everyone was touched by what happened in the United States,” Legault said Monday. “But we don’t want to import that climate that we see here.”
The naming of the task force coincided with — and perhaps overshadowed — the release of a major report that found systemic discrimination is alive and well in Quebec’s largest, most diverse city, despite what the premier thinks.
The 252-page volume from the Office de consultation publique de Montréal is the product of months of hearings that involved 7,000 citizens. Delayed by the pandemic, the outrage over
Floyd’s death gave it a greater sense of urgency. But it is only the latest document to reach this conclusion.
It’s not a question of whether Legault is sincere in his desire to fight racism — systemic or otherwise. Give him the benefit of the doubt. The issue is whether he fully understands what Quebec is facing, given his allergic reaction to mere mention of the term.
This is, after all, a government that passed a law that could be the textbook definition of systemic racism. Bill 21 bars people who wear visible religious garb from holding certain public sector jobs, notably teacher or police officer. It’s a law that puts the sensitivities of the majority toward secularism above the rights of religious minorities.
But Legault doesn’t see the conundrum. “Secularism is not racism,” he said, when asked about this incoherence.
As for the ministers in the Coalition Avenir Québec government tasked with fixing racism, there’s no doubt they have competence, wisdom and experience aplenty. International Relations Minister Nadine Girault and junior health minister Lionel Carmant, the chairs, have both experienced racism firsthand and triumphed over it. (The other members are Sylvie D’amours, the Indigenous Affairs minister, Christopher Skeete, parliamentary secretary for anglophone affairs, Isabelle Lecours, the MNA for Lotbinière-frontenac, Ian Lanfrenière, parliamentary secretary to the public security minister, and Denis Lamothe, parliamentary secretary to the Indigenous Affairs minister.)
But do they have the impartiality? Both Carmant and Girault sung the praises of Quebec’s openness as a society. Will they be free to call out some of its more cringeworthy elements, given their boss’s marching orders?
In creating a partisan, internal committee to address racism, the members will not be accountable to the wider public, but to the premier himself. An inclusive, multi-party effort would have more credibility — and perhaps greater resonance.
Mayor Plante’s statement at city council admitting systemic racism may seem like a symbolic gesture. It is. But it’s a necessary step along a path to reconciliation that must come from the ground up rather than be imposed from the top down. Otherwise, it misses the point.