Policy-makers must consider newcomers’ religious needs

As immigration numbers increase, we need to catch up, Tim Harbinson writes.

Earlier this month, federal immigration minister John McCallum announced his intention to “substantially increase” the number of new immigrants coming to Canada to fill projected labour shortages.

Immigration lawyer David Cohen says most provincial governments “are asking the federal government to be allowed to take in more newcomers. There is not a single provincial government saying they have enough people. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

Increased immigration is the practical solution to an expanding economy. Culturally, it adds layers and diversity to our communities. At its best, immigration broadens the range of our national self; at its worst it exposes our rigidity, parochialism and intolerance.

Acceptance and intolerance always rise concurrently, but it has been proven again and again that the growing pains that are an inevitable part of immigration waves are worth it in the long run.

I do not envy the job of policymakers in the coming years. There is a lot of work to be done to accommodate, settle and integrate these newcomers.

Existing services will need to be expanded and modified, new civic education, language and healthawareness programs will need to be instituted, to name just a few. And by and large I trust the federal government has the capacity and the will to respond to this.

However, in my experience as a community organizer, an area where policy-makers need to place more focus is religion.

I work in LaSalle, which is one of the most culturally diverse areas of Montreal. Here, there are large Sikh, Muslim and Christian newcomer communities whose needs are not being met because of the way policy is formed.

These communities have no official way to influence policy because consultations on policy in Quebec do not allow religious voices to be heard. As much as this commitment to secularism is laudable, it results in a democratic deficit for incoming people of faith.

For example, current laws require that places of worship are zoned as such. If people are caught worshipping in a building that has not been zoned for religious observance, they are heavily fined and barred from practising their faith in that place. This effectively criminalizes one of the most fundamental cultural needs of the communities in question.

When faith-based immigrant populations need help and advice, they turn to religious leaders. These leaders have an acute understanding of the needs of the communities they serve, but they have little access to those who decide policy because of Quebec’s secular values.

This is a little-known problem — one that could so easily be solved.

I personally know two Muslim leaders and one Christian leader who have been handed zoning fines. They say the application process for a rezoning permit is lengthy and expensive. In many cases, Montreal boroughs outright refuse to rezone buildings, thus closing the door to expanding religious diversity in the area.

The effective criminalization of worship goes completely against the principles of Canadian democracy and creates the risk of alienation and resentment in newcomer communities.

I do not believe that this is some kind of secular conspiracy, but it is an area where policy needs to catch up with the realities of a fluid and ever-changing society.

Until now, it has been up to religious leaders to provide and link services that are usually associated with the public sector.

Recently, an interfaith group in Montreal North successfully campaigned for the creation of a library and play park for the families and children of diverse immigrant communities. In LaSalle, an interfaith community project is reaching out to isolated elderly people in the area. These are much-needed initiatives, but they are very low on resources and the needs that they are responding to remain largely invisible to policy-makers.

What we need to recognize and address as a host country is that the vast majority of the rest of the world is not secular. Secularism is the exception.

If we cannot provide our newcomers with meaningful avenues of representation and safe spaces in which they can practise their faith, we risk adding to the division, hostility and disintegration of our communities.