How to fight racism without Quebec bashing
Racism in Quebec is back in the news again, following a familiar script. During the recent English leaders’ debate, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet was asked a question about Quebec’s discriminatory secularism laws.
Many white people in English Canada sneered and jeered, happy to distract from their own racism by pointing the finger at Quebec. And many white people in French Quebec clutched their proverbial pearls, outraged by yet another slanderous accusation of racism from English Canada. In scandal after scandal, white people and their infighting take centre stage while the systemic racism we created continues unchecked.
I am a professor at the University of Ottawa who studies feminism, racism and sexuality in Quebec literature. As a white anglophone woman, I regularly reflect on my role when intervening in debates about racism in Quebec.
Over the years, I have often asked myself, how can I support the fight against racism in Quebec without resorting to Quebec bashing? I write almost exclusively in French, but I wrote this in English because it is aimed at an Englishspeaking audience.
First, Quebec’s secularism laws are discriminatory. A Quebec Superior Court ruled in April that these laws violate the basic rights of religious minorities in the province. The judge made it clear that the law tramples on minority rights, noting that this decision will be “felt negatively above all by Muslim women.”
Premier Legault used the notwithstanding clause to protect these laws because he knew they were unconstitutional. They violate our rights as Canadians, which are enshrined in the Constitution. That is a fact, not an opinion.
But an important and often neglected issue is the role that English domination plays in creating the conditions for racism to thrive in Quebec. For many, French life feels fragile under the immense linguistic and cultural pressure that English dominance exerts in North America. Like “a bit of sugar in a gallon of coffee,” as Quebec novelist Yves Beauchemin once put it, French speakers often worry their language and culture could drown in an anglocentric ocean.
These fears are grounded in a long history of assimilation policies meant to stamp out French language and culture. Anglophone attitudes of cultural superiority are also a painful part of this history, such as Lord Durham famously describing French Canada as “uneducated, inactive and unprogressive people.”
This context is important because when criticism of Bill 21 is accompanied by smug superiority and sweeping generalizations, it makes it very difficult for many Québécois to stomach. This prevents conversations about systemic racism from moving forward. As Le Devoir columnist Emilie Nicolas explained, when we allow criticism of Bill 21 to be conflated with Quebec bashing, people of colours’ voices are less hearable.
While there are many important cultural differences between French and English Canada, whiteness unites elites on both sides. And under attack, they close ranks.
It is not a coincidence that the two white male leaders of Canada’s two major political parties, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, released statements calling the question posed to the white male Bloc Québécois leader “offensive” and “unfair.”
The moral of the story is that if you are white and English speaking and you want to help to end racism, throwing popcorn at the television when the Bloc Québécois leader defends a discriminatory law is not effective. It might make you feel good, but your outrage only fans the flames of racism in Quebec. You are part of the problem.
What can you do?
Stop centring white perspectives, histories and interests and demand that others do the same. Spend time and money supporting organizations led by people of colour inside and outside of Quebec. Develop and maintain strong relationships of accountability with organizers and communities of colour. Centre BIPOC thinkers who propose policies to end systemic racism and vote for them.