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'Reasonable accommodation' is a political term used in the province of Quebec in Canada, in reference to the dynamic of multiculturalism in a predominantly Western-oriented, French-speaking society. The term is meant to determine to what extent a society should reasonably shape its rules and values to "accommodate" religious or cultural minority citizens. (The origin of the term "reasonable accommodation" is found in labour-market jurisprudence, and refers to efforts of employers towards employees.)

Contents

Background

Media coverage

Accommodation for Muslim headgear

Political reaction

The Reasonable Accommodation Commission

See also

Sources

Background

Successive provincial governments have been talking, but not acting assertively, about opening up the civil service and the professions to qualified minorities. Anglophones, for example, make up some 9% of the population but 1% of the civil service.

Media coverage

In Quebec, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, this question on what was and will be the national identity is taking front page, such as the court decision in Multani v. Commission scolaire Marguerite‑Bourgeoys.
Also controversial was the initial "code of conduct" passed by the municipal council in the town of Hérouxville. The document states that stoning women or burning them alive is prohibited, as is excision (female genital cutting). The motion explains many practices considered normal in western culture. These standards also state that carrying a weapon to school [a reference to the Sikh ceremonial kirpan], covering one's face (the Muslim veil), and the accommodation for prayer in school will not be permitted. It attests that "Our people eat to nourish the body, not the soul," in reference to Jewish and Muslim dietary laws, and that health-care professionals "do not have to ask permission to perform blood transfusions."
There was extensive coverage of related issues in Quebec's highly-concentrated news media, which some analysts attributed more to the pressure of competition than to citizen concern. The media play reached such an extent that the premier of the province stated several non-negotiable values, such as "the equality of women and men; the primacy of French; the separation between the state and religion".
Several commentators have avowed that the debate caused support for the conservative ADQ party to increase, such that it now forms the official opposition in the provincial legislature [1].
An "accommodation" was reached between the provincial government and the Roman Catholic church on the disposal of underused churches in an overwhelmingly secular province. Local parishes were given the opportunity to develop the buildings as community centres, for example, rather than give way to condominium construction.

Accommodation for Muslim headgear

Muslim women wearing the niqab (veil) or burka will be capable of voting in all upcoming national elections, byelections and referendums without demonstrating their faces, Elections Canada has said.[2] The same policy applies to all Canadians, in that photo ID is not strictly required, if two other pieces of acceptable official ID are provided, or another voter vouches for them.[3]
The proclamation has been completely conflicting in Quebec, where there is a considerable Muslim community and angry antagonism to this and other classes of accommodation.[4] Premier Charest entitled the happening a "bad decision" and said further that the discussion had already occured in his province, which forbade the practice.[5]
The national Conservative administration challenged Canada's chief electoral officer, Marc mayrand, to examine his conclusion to permit Muslim women to elect with their faces hidden. The federal Liberals and the Bloc Québécois also requested such a reversal, to demand all voters show their faces in order to vote, even those whose faces are normally covered for religious reasons. They joined a chorus of Quebec politicians who attacked the decision.[6]
Sarah Elgazzar, an advocate for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations in Montreal, declared it is improbable very many Muslim women will have hidden faces when electing. Elgazzar insisted that women using niqabs usually take them off to distinguish themselves and do not sport them for photo IDs.[7] This fact was echoed by Salam Elmenyawi of the Muslim Council of Montreal.[8]

Political reaction

Former leader of the Parti Quebecois Andre Boisclair noted, "We're not talking about reasonable accommodation [if] it has nothing to do with public services," Boisclair said. At the same time, Boisclair blamed Charest for pandering to Quebecers who balk at adjustments made for immigrants in civil society.
Mario Dumont, leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) said in an interview in La Presse that Quebec needs more immigration for economic and demographic reasons. But believes that Quebec had met its limits of immigrant acculturation, and that any further increase would create ghettos. He criticized Charest for a plan to raise immigration levels when the Liberal government has cut funds for integration of newcomers into French culture. 'We're a linguistic minority...and immigrants need francization,' Dumont said. 'It's quite a challenge.'[9]
Current Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois said that Quebec should assume all control over its immigration, not the 60% that is has now under a bilateral agreement with the government of Canada. She also said the province should make the message clear to immigrants that Quebec is a francophone "state", not officially bilingual as is Canada and Quebec's neighbouring province New Brunswick.
Ms. Marois avows that Quebec is in need of more immigrants, to offset with a declining birth rate for future labor needs. She further believes that Quebec is a francophone state in where the rights of the anglophone minority are respected, and where all the inhabitants live in French [10].

The Reasonable Accommodation Commission

Premier Jean Charest, citing several instances of "unreasonable" accommodation, appointed a two-man commission in February 2007 to investigate the issue and report back by 31 March 2008. Its formal title is the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences [11]. Its commissioners are professors Charles Taylor, a well-known federalist philosopher, and Gérard Bouchard, a separatist. Doubt was cast on Bouchard's fitness to serve as an impartial chair, as before the commission held even one public hearing, he announced in an interview that "sovereignty" was the solution to calm Franco-Quebeckers' cultural insecurity. Co-chair Taylor stated, however, that Quebecers need to demonstrate the "openness and generosity of spirit" that majorities should have towards minorities [12].
Before formal proceedings began, Bouchard and Taylor said they found an insecurity in Quebec's "pure laine" population in focus groups across the province. The commissioners feel that the paranoia that Muslims, for example, are somehow taking over our society (when they represent 1.5% of the population) can be countered by facts [13].

See also

Asmahan Mansour

Sources

★ A one-year chronology of the province's 'reasonable accommodation' controversy [14]

★ 'Accommodate Each Other' [15]

★ Charest enters the fray [16]

★ Church and state find accommodation [17]

★ Damaged commission: Reasonable accommodation commissioner already has made up his mind [18]

★ Dumont criticizes PQ, Liberals over referendum hang-ups in election campaign [19]

★ Immigration hearings aim to sort fact from fiction [20]

★ L'affaire Herouxville born out of fear: experts [21]

★ Media stir up storm over 'accommodation' [22]

★ Minorities excluded from public institution jobs [23]

★ Racism vs. reasonable accommodation of minorities sparks debate in Quebec [24]

★ Rural Quebec town bans stoning women [25]

★ Quebec town spawns uneasy debate [26]

★ Quebec towns reject Hérouxville immigrant code [27]