A WIDESPREAD debate on the ‘reasonable accommodation’ of minorities has convulsed Quebec society – and could set precedents that impact all of Canada.

The debate grew out of a series of somewhat minor incidents over the past two years.

A Sikh student went to court and won the right to wear a kirpan at school. Some Hasidic Jews asked the YWCA to install tinted glass so women in shorts could not be seen exercising. A Muslim girl was forbidden to wear a hijab or head scarf on the soccer field.

A worker was asked not to eat his lunch containing a pork sandwich in the kosher cafeteria of a hospital. Some Muslims and Hasidic Jews objected to being interviewed by police personnel of the opposite gender, or wanted driving instructors of the same gender. Some Hindu, Muslim and Jewish women asked to be seen only by a female doctor at medical clinics.

The legal term applied to many of these issues is “reasonable accommodation.” However, “regular laws that govern the majority sometimes cause injustice if applied to a minority,” said Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal.

For instance, some labour laws might force a person to work on a religious holiday. Therefore, courts and rights tribunals have ordered institutions to accommodate to minorities – as long as those accommodations “do not cause undue hardship to the institution.”

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For example, having a school provide a private place where Muslims students can pray quietly would be a reasonable accommodation, but requiring the school to build a mosque for them would not.

Court decisions in favour of accommodation have created something of a backlash in mainstream Quebec society.

This became visible in January, when the small town of Herouxville adopted a “code of conduct” telling immigrants how to “integrate socially.”

One result of the controversy was the establishment of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences.

The Commission’s public hearings, beginning in August, have sometimes been dominated by mainstream Quebecois opposed to accommodation.

Elmenyawi said the hearings have become “a platform for racism and xenophobia.” While he is confident that a majority of French-Canadians are more tolerant, he said he is concerned that a desire for integration might lead to a demand for assimilation.

The Commission will issue a report in March.              –  Jim Coggins

December 2007