Labour should strike when iron is hot
Quebec’s economy is booming against a backdrop of a more sluggish world economy. Meantime the CAQ is reducing immigration levels and putting in a new “values” test clearly meant to tamp down on the range of possible immigrants here.
This is when working people can make demands: better conditions, higher minimum wage. Ever since the population fell after the Black Death, working people have had the upper hand when the economy needed them most. But I don’t see much movement in that direction here.
Jack 14:40 on 2019-10-30 Permalink
It is truly amazing how productive “immigrants” are for Legault and the CAQ. They are the gift that keeps on giving.
Because as we all know immigrants do not believe in Quebec values, like targeting minority groups for electoral gain.
This quote is particularly rich and frankly I think I could have heard this 50 years ago from an uncle who had too much to drink. “« Je pense qu’après 24 heures de cours [les immigrants] vont connaître les valeurs qui sont dans la Charte », a lancé M.Legault”
I would bet a thousand dollars that 98% of white Quebecers wouldn’t be able to tell you two things in that Charter.
Chris 20:42 on 2019-10-30 Permalink
Reducing immigration levels? The last paragraph of this https://nationalpost.com/news/quebec/quebec-imposing-values-test-for-new-immigrants says Quebec is (slightly) increasing them.
This test will probably be mostly useless, I mean, any die-hard Islamist trying to sneak in here will just study, lie, and pass. Then again, is it really any more egregious than the existing federal citizenship test? It’s also easy to lie about pledging allegiance to the Queen.
Kate 07:43 on 2019-10-31 Permalink
Chris, you’re quite the CAQ apologist. They squeezed immigration down before letting up again, is what they did.
is it really any more egregious than the existing federal citizenship test?
It is, because the federal test is about facts: facts about Canadian history and government. The Quebec test is intended more to probe how people feel about the facts – if we can even call our precious laïcité “fact” when our supposedly nonreligious schools have names like Christ-Roi, Coeur-Immaculé-de-Marie or Saint-Enfant-Jésus.
Can you really judge someone’s attitudes by a written test? No. But it buys a lot of regional votes for the CAQ.
Chris 09:58 on 2019-10-31 Permalink
CAQ apologist?! ROTFL! Please don’t confuse dispassionate analysis with support.
Yes, they squeezed immigration down before letting it up again. That’s _exactly_ what the paragraph I linked to said. Your summary says nothing about it being up again, in fact it says the opposite.
I don’t believe the exact questions are known, but it seems this new test is _also_ about facts. Things like: who has the right to marry? Knowing that the answer is “two people, regardless of sex” does not mean one agrees with the answer. It does not appear that this ‘values test’ asks one to affirm agreement with anything. That would be another matter. By contrast, the federal citizenship process not only requires you to know facts about the Queen, but to pledge allegiance.
This new test seems designed to be basically impossible to fail. As such, it’s not going to actually reject any prospective immigrants. Therefore that can’t be it’s actual goal. It’s goal is political. It’s a signal to the many people uncomfortable with immigration. Of what? Optimistically, they’re trying to manufacture consent to now increase immigration (as business wants, remember CAQ is right-wing pro-business) by saying ‘look, we’re screening out baddies’ (even if they’re not). Pessimistically, they’re signalling darker things, which I needn’t elaborate on.
Jack 10:12 on 2019-10-31 Permalink
@ Chris you are not addressing what is fundamental here. The values test, immigration levels are a ruse. CAQ is using immigrants and religious minorities as targets and easy binaries to bulwark their support in the majority community, amongst those who are ethnic supremacists. This is not at all about immigrants it is about our collective stupidity. This is my passionate analysis.
ant6n 13:02 on 2019-10-31 Permalink
The Canadian citizenship test isn’t just about knowing facts, it comes with a book, “Discover Canada”, that’s does include some folklore and talk about the greatness of democratic values and some such.
Kate 13:04 on 2019-10-31 Permalink
Thanks ant6n. Having been born here I never had to undergo the procedure. I just looked things up quickly on the government site before I posted.