reasonable accommodation
Reasonable accommodation is a legal term used in Canada, which is the legal obligation to
modify a law or a norm when it is contrary to fundamental rights stipulated in Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This concept is, according to the
Supreme Court of Canada, a logical consequence of the Charter itself. The term
is currently used in the public debate in various meanings involving minority rights. (The origin of the term "reasonable
accommodation" is found in labour-market jurisprudence, and refers to the obligation of employers to change some general rules
for certain employees, under the condition that there is no "excessive constraint".)
Examples
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."
A discussion was started early in 2007 when a YWCA set up clouded windows to shelter ultra-Orthodox Jews who had grumbled that youngsters were subjected to women in gym attire. The subjects of balloting while clothed in a niqab or burka along with the forbiddance of hijabs in athletic contests have also produced plenty of debate and fighting in the province.[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 to Judaism
"Benjamin Rubin, a star forward with the Gatineau Olympiques ice hockey team , refused to play several key matches because they fell on a Jewish holiday. Some claimed the Jews will end up forcing the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to reschedule all their matches on Fridays and Saturdays. In fact, Rubin and the Olympiques came to an agreement, and he will only miss a handful of games."
Media exposure
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 [2].
Public opinion
Modern public opinion surveys discovered a majority of Quebecers resistant to Muslims sporting even a hijab in public, and more than half of those polled said they feel newcomers should desert their habits and act more like the majority.
Immigration
Quebec had an aim of 46 000 newcomers in 2006, but the real figure was only 44 686. The aim in 2007 is 48 000. Immigration department administrators say Quebec will have to increase that to 60 000 per year in the next 10 years because not enough residents are born in the province to execute the employment that will be ready. Mario Dumont stated the ADQ doesn't want to increase the aim more than 46 000 until the province can advantageously conform its immigrants. Before 1991, Dumont claimed, newcomers had higher employment rates than the Quebec norm, but since that time their employment rate is lower than normal. Also, he noted the majority of the investment class of newcomers quit Quebec for the rest of Canada.
PQ Leader Pauline Marois recently counseled that the Quebecois should not be embarrassed to employ the term `nous' (us), a pronoun often synonymous with the exclusion of non-francophones. She stated that the PQ has been a party that tries to accommodate newcomers , but is also a party that requires people to accept who the Quebecois are.
International reaction
The experience of Quebec in reasonable accommodation and immigration is of specific
attraction to Segolene Royal as she stated Quebec has accomplished maintaining its
principles and customs amid mainly
Employment integration
A recent examination from Statistics Canada demonstrated that Quebec has the worst newcomer employment account in Canada. The newest immigrants endured an unemployment ratio of 17.8 per cent in 2006, or almost thrice the 6.3-per-cent ratio of native-born help. In contrast, joblessness among current newcomers in Ontario is 11 per cent contrasted with 4.4 per cent among the Canadian-born. In British Columbia, the numbers are 9.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent. These newcomers are more probable to possess a scholarly diploma than local-born Canadians.
The study's writer did not decide that the working difficulties of newcomers to Quebec are rooted in the similar historical narrow-mindedness that has blown up the reasonable accommodation point.
"She notes that it will be some time before she and her colleagues can do enough analysis to say much about the causes of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, Quebec does seem to favour a more extreme version of this (syndrome) than other provinces. Several factors are the devaluation of allegedly inadequate foreign credentials, language tests that have little to do with professional performance and "Canadian experience" requirements that serve as an all-purpose excuse to lock out job applicants who don't already have a job.
"In both Quebec and Canada as a whole, 26 per cent said their biggest employment problem was a demand for Canadian experience and 21 per cent said it was would-be employers who wouldn't recognize foreign credentials or experience."
(more to come)
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.[4] The same policy applies to all Canadians under federal Bill C-31, in that photo ID is not strictly required, if two other pieces of acceptable official ID are provided, or another voter vouches for them.[5]
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.[6] Premier Charest entitled the happening a "bad decision" and said further that the discussion had already occurred in his province, which forbade the practice.[7]
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 federal and provincial politicians from Quebec who attacked the decision.[8]
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.[9] This fact was echoed by Salam Elmenyawi of the Muslim Council of Montreal.[10]
Political reaction
Former leader of the Parti Québécois André
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 Premier
Charest declined to defend them when hijabi girls were prohibited from soccer and tae kwon do, and when prejudiced remarks were offered about Jews.[11]
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.'[12]
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
The Reasonable Accommodation Commission
Premier
The commission is having conferences in various Quebec regions, such as the remote Rouyn-Noranda, Sept-Iles and Saguenay, Que., where religious accommodation is mostly irrelevant because few minorities exit there. The committee will listen to individuals and organizations and experts in Quebec identity, religion, and integration of so-called cultural communities (minority groups). [16]
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 [17].
The conferences on reasonable accommodation could divide people and carry out more injury than advantage, if there exist no extra means undertaken to guarantee the discussion will happen in a guided, impartial and civil method, advised a race relations spokesman. Fo Niemi, co-establisher of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations declared that the authority of the commission is not regular with the earlier authorization of reasonable accommodation because it directly looks at the debate over newcomers to Quebec. This is much wider and more comprehensive than initially created.
Consequently, Niemi assumes the investigation could separate the Quebec population along religious, cultural and racial marks. It has been extended to involve Jews and Sikhs and possibly others, insisted Niemi, a worry expressed by additional analysts.
This type of convention will increase Islamophobia agreed Salam Elmenyawi, leader of the Muslim Council of Montreal.
The count of visible minorities present at the earliest gathering of the commission was short.
"This procedure bothers Niemi as he believes it could oppose the mostly caucasian
French-speaking areas against the cosmopolitan and greatly multilingual
"There may be a risk of further polarizing and dividing Quebec society
See also
Sources
- A one-year chronology of the province's 'reasonable accommodation' controversy [19]
'Accommodate Each Other' [20]
Action démocratique isn't anti-immigration, it's pro-integration: Dumont [21]
Charest enters the fray [22]
Charest raps opposition's closed-minded view of immigrants [23]
Church and state find accommodation [24]
- Damaged commission: Reasonable accommodation commissioner already has made up his mind [25]
- Dumont criticizes PQ, Liberals over referendum hang-ups in election campaign [26]
Immigration hearings aim to sort fact from fiction [27]
Intolerance costly, says Charest [28]
L'affaire Herouxville born out of fear: experts [29]
- Media stir up storm over 'accommodation' [30]
- Minorities excluded from public institution jobs [31]
MPs feast on non-issue [32]
Not particularly accommodating: Quebec voters are making fear of visible minorities a hot issue [33]
Racism vs. reasonable accommodation of minorities sparks debate in Quebec [34]
- Rural Quebec town bans stoning women [35]
Quebec town spawns uneasy debate [36]
Quebec towns reject Hérouxville immigrant code [37]
Segolene Royal speaks to packed Que. auditorium [38]
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