Montreal City Weblog

Kate 10:44 on 2021-02-24 Permalink Reply  

• Bill Binns 10:58 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  We will never beat racism until every job has rigidly enforced skin color requirements.

• Daniel 11:02 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  Oh, Bill Binns. You dickens! I see the point you’ve made obliquely. But I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the first person in this post have some lived experience in the subject.

• Joey 11:02 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  “Benoit Charette est actuellement ministre de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques” – guess it’s just simpler to have one person responsible for all the files the ruling party doesn’t care about. Maybe they can make him minister for Montreal as well.

• Chris 11:35 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  >…have some lived experience in the subject

  First, do you know he doesn’t? I didn’t RTFA, but for all we know maybe he lived in Asia or elsewhere for a stint and did experience racism. You shouldn’t assume anything about someone’s lived experience just because of their skin colour or sex.

  Second, maybe he’s got excellent book-experience. Perhaps he has a PhD or something in race studies.

  I think Kate’s summary is quite unfortunate. What’s important is what’s in his brain, what stances he holds, what positions he espouses, etc. You know, the content of his character, not the colour of his skin. Reducing his qualifications (or not) to “white man” is not productive. If we want to reach a world where your skin colour is as irrelevant as your hair colour, this is not how to do it.

  If he’s a shit candidate, let’s tar him for the right reasons.

• Bert 11:36 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  Benoit Charette goes from fighting against change to fighting for change. #WishyWashy /s

• David Senik 11:46 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  Bill Binns, no judgment on you but your reply smacks of racist sentiment and deserves to be called out as such.

  Chris, it’s possible to judge the man based on his experience and character while also acknowledging that the selection of someone from the dominant culture to represent minorities is a poor one.

• Benoit 11:55 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  Does his skin colour make Benoit Charette less qualified? That just perpetuates racism imo. We should be beyond that – and that’s where my kids’ generation is at. They (and their classmates) don’t seem to care at all about someone’s skin colour. It’s a non-factor to them, it’s just their “normal”. People have different skin tones, and that’s it. Next subject?

  By the way, Benoit Charette’s wife and kids are “visible minorities”, it that stuff is important to you.

• Meezly 12:21 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  @Benoit. using the reverse racism argument actually perpetuates racism.

  In some ways, I see Benoit Charette as a step forward for a party such as the CAQ. At least it’s an improvement to appointing a white former cop as the Minister of Indigenous Affairs!

  With Charette, his wife is of Haitian origin and he has biracial children. Apparently, he won a human rights case where his family was denied rental accommodation because of their skin colour. So at least he has had some direct experience with racial discrimination.

  It will be interesting to see how much change Charette can do and I’m curious to hear his personal take on systemic racism in Quebec.

• MarcG 12:22 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  His whiteness doesn’t make him less qualified but it does make him privileged. I imagine there are plenty of qualified people for this job and they chose him.

• Blork 12:32 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  Just tossing in one of those patented Blork Issue Digests, because it beats workin’

  If you appoint a POC to the racism portfolio, it could appear to some that you are essentially (pardon the term, please, but it works) “ghettoizing” the issue. As in, “let the POCs worry about POC problems.”

  on the other hand, if you give that portfolio to a white person, then it seems like some kind of neo-colonialism at work. Also, this parallel for perspective: imagine putting a man in charge of the sexism portfolio.

  Personally, I think the “lived experience” argument trumps everything else by an order of magnitude.

  But then it all comes down to whether or not there is a POC in the government who is qualified for the job. Qualifications being roughly: (1) part of the government, (2) interested in the job, (3) not an idiot — that’s the hardest one when choosing from people who fit qualification number 1. (I admit I have no idea what kind of rainbow we have in government right now… Traditionally it’s been white as snow. Are there many POCs to choose from at the moment?)

  So to these eyes, Benoit Charette doesn’t seem like a particularly good candidate, but are there any POCs in the government who want the job? (Considering the “ghettoization” argument can also come from a POC’s point of view, along the lines of “FFS, I want to run [SOME OTHER PORTFOLIO] but why do they always throw the racism job at me?”)

• Kate 12:38 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  Good thoughts, Blork.

  I wasn’t editorializing, by the way. It’s simply a fact that the candidate is a white guy, with the upsides and downsides Blork outlines. I think what they need on this is a committee, with a range of people from different backgrounds, and maybe that will happen.

• walkerp 14:18 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  It’s not skin colour you idiots, it’s culture and background (often indicated by skin colour). Of course it makes a difference if the person is of a race that has been discriminated against. They will have deep experience to help them understand the issue and push for solutions that will help make real change.

  Also like maybe since every other position of power is pretty much filled by a white person, one has to wonder why all the sudden freaking out about discrimation pops up now. FOH.

• GC 19:55 on 2021-02-24 Permalink

  According to Wikipedia, there are five visible minority CAQ members in the current government. Given the small pool to choose from, it’s possible he might actually be the best qualified. They can’t exactly hand pick someone to be an elected member of the government. Agreed that it’s not a great look, but hopefully he will at least consult with different ethnic groups.

  Of course the cynical part of me is more in line with what Joey said.

• EmilyG 14:24 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  Maybe one of the important things (to Legault anyway) is that this guy denies the existence of systemic racism.

• Dhomas 21:57 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  I’m not generally one for singling people out, but… Bill Binns, you’ve got to stop! I read this blog daily and I don’t think you’ve posted since getting spanked with that “chef’s kiss” comment from the Camara case. It’s making you look bad that you just can’t seem to help but make some snide, somewhat racist comment every time the issue of race is discussed.