Integration bill incites critiques

There are concerns Quebec’s new “national integration model” aimed at immigrants could also harm Onkwehóh:we in the province. The proposed model aims to impose Quebec culture as the “common culture” that both immigrants and “cultural minorities” must adhere to, wording that’s raised alarm at the council table. 

The integration model is being proposed under Bill 84, which was tabled by French language minister Jean-François Roberge at the National Assembly in late January.

“It is imperative that the bill be clarified - it does not apply to us. The Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawà:ke are not strangers or immigrants to our own lands. Our centuries-long relationship proves that we will not be assimilated into a foreign culture,” Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) grand chief Cody Diabo wrote in a letter this week to premier François Legault. 

The bill calls on Quebec to commit to “creating and maintaining conditions that foster the learning of French,” among immigrants, but doesn’t spell out precisely how exactly the proposed model would be enforced, such as through the creation of more French courses. 

What’s more troubling however is the bill’s lack of clarity around whether the integration model would apply to First Nations in the province, Diabo told The Eastern Door.

There’s only a short mention of First Nations in its preamble, he said, where it’s mentioned that the Quebec government “recognizes the right of the First Nations and the Inuit in Quebec, descendants of the first inhabitants of this land, to preserve and develop their original language and culture.”

“It’s pretty silent after that,” Diabo said. “Whatever they want to do with their own citizens is their own business, but don’t do these sweeping legislations anymore that have these detrimental effects for First Nations people.”

He approached Indigenous affairs minister Ian Lafrenière while at a hockey game in Montreal last weekend to let him know he had “major concerns” about it. The leader has also since called for a meeting with Quebec officials to talk about how it can be reworded. 

“There’s been no consultation about it,” Diabo said. “We need to make sure this won’t negatively impact us.”

The leader of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL), regional chief Francis Verrault-Paul, also wrote to the minister behind the bill. He’s also of the position that First Nations need to be exempt from it.

“I think this is kind of dangerous,” he said, saying the wording leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation. “Even though the minister is saying that it should not apply to us, well, when it’s not written in the bill, then you never know.”

A meeting has since been scheduled between him and minister Roberge in Quebec City next week to talk about it. 

“The way it’s written, in our reading of it, is that we will be included as ‘cultural minorities,’’ Verrault-Paul said. “As First Nations, we have ancestral rights and titles, so the government needs to be aware of that.”

[email protected]