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[Delenda]

Election in Quebec raises ugly spectre of intolerance
The Province
Published: Sunday, March 18, 2007
In a week's time, Quebecers will go the polls at the conclusion of an election campaign that has revealed disturbing undercurrents of intolerance and xenophobia in la belle province.

It is too early to tell what effect, if any, the regrettable outbursts will have -- but grave damage has already been done to Quebec's image.

Andre Boisclair, leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois, has done himself no favours with his unfortunate references to Asian students and their "slanted eyes" -- particularly since he has repeatedly refused to apologize.

But Boisclair himself, who is openly gay, was the target of overt homophobic taunts when a redneck radio host said on air that the PQ resembled "un club de tapettes." ("Tapette" is the French equivalent in Quebec of "fag.")

Boisclair was visibly shaken with anger.

His rival, Action democratique du Quebec Leader Mario Dumont, 36, has also been burdened with candidates with a talent for political incorrectness.

In fact, Dumont was obliged to fire two of them.

One got the boot after making outrageous comments about women, homosexuals and immigrants on his Internet radio show.

Another was sacked over his remark that "ethnics will invade" unless Quebec women have more babies.

What is truly alarming is that such remarks appeal to a section of Quebec society which feels that its "culture" is threatened by immigrants.

Ever since the rural town of Herouxville issued its infamous proclamation of what it expects from immigrants, the airwaves in Quebec have been filled with pseudo-racist cant.

It seems clear that Dumont's spectacular rise in the polls is due at least in part to the perception among rural conservatives that he is on their side.

At the start of the campaign, it looked as though the Liberal leader, Jean Charest, might be back with a new majority government.

But Charest is not hugely popular and his government failed to keep important promises, particularly in regard to tax relief measures.

Before the election call, the Liberals held 72 seats in the 125-seat legislature, while the PQ had 45 and the ADQ five, with one independent and two vacancies.

Now pundits say little separates the three senior parties -- and Quebec could be headed for its first minority government since 1878.

Whoever becomes the next premier faces the urgent task of restoring the image of Quebec as progressive and tolerant -- and not a rat's nest of vulgar xenophobia.




© The Vancouver Province 2007

[Delenda]

Andre Boisclair's "slanting eyes" comment heard differently by French ears
Canadian Press

MONTREAL (CP) - Mai Ha had in mind the beauty of the Asian eye when she named her restaurant Les Brides - a play on the slant-eyed expression that embroiled Andre Boisclair in controversy this week.

Mai, a native of Vietnam, says the French expression "Les yeux brides" (pronounced 'bree-day') is sometimes used to insult, but believes most Quebecers are thinking of the grace of almond-shaped eyes when they say it.

"There's always two meanings, and it just depends on how they say it, on the tone of the voice," Mai said in an interview Friday.

"For me, I take it in a positive way, it's something that represents the Orient and prettiness, something of beauty," said Mai, who came to Quebec in 1975.

"But you know what? My eyes aren't even like that."

When Boisclair lumped Asians together by the slant of some of their eyes, the Parti Quebecois leader exposed one more gaping divide between the meaning of words in English and French.

It was reinforced when he refused to apologize.

Boisclair was speaking about Quebec competitiveness with India and China when he made some observations from the year he spent at Harvard University.

He told a university crowd in Trois-Rivieres, Que., that "the reality is these countries are not just working to create jobs in sweatshops."

"When I was in Boston, where I spent a year, I was surprised to see that on campus about one-third of the students doing their bachelor's degrees had slanting eyes."

While some Chinese people and anti-racism activists were outraged, Mai was willing to give Boisclair a pass. Like many francophone Quebecers, she didn't see a problem because Boisclair seemed to mean no harm.

"Les yeux brides" is an expression that has popped up quite recently in respected journals, Quebec government advertising and in French newspapers in the province.

One anti-racism advertisement under the Parti Quebecois government a few years back reminded Quebecers, "Les yeux brides, le coeur Quebecois." In other words, "Slanting eyes, Quebecer heart."

It's hard to imagine a similar campaign in Ontario or British Columbia.

Language experts from a respected Quebec university took exception to Boisclair's use of the words, and not just the English translation.

"It's a blunder in French too," said Louis Jolicoeur, a professor at Laval University.

"It's a bad expression, it's dated, it's a facile observation. It's something our grandparents would say, it's not a normal expression of his era. It's true that it is much more neutral than in English, but a man who is so open to different communities should know better."

Jolicoeur and Sarah Cummins, both linguists and translators, pointed out Boisclair played on two well-established Asian stereotypes, putting sweatshop workers up against the geniuses taking over university campuses.

Cummins added that Boisclair put his Harvard colleagues into the generalized category of Asian foreigners when they are probably mostly American.

And, she added, he seems to have reached these conclusions based on an instant evaluation of the shape of their eyes.

"He goes down there and notices this physical feature of a lot of students and lumps them all together," said Cummins, a professor at the University of Laval in Quebec City.

"What people find offensive is immediately fixing on some physical feature of people and lumping together based on that."

The opinions of Cummins and other outraged Canadians come as a shock to many Quebecers.

The French version of a 2002 National Theatre School of Canada journal article used the expression while talking about "the lovely colours Quebec has taken on in the past 30 years."

In one recent adoption chatroom message, a new Quebec mother wrote adoringly in French of the beautiful, slanted eyes of her new Chinese baby.

Cummins said it all points to a Quebec tendency to divide people into quickly identifiable groups that has persisted longer than in English-speaking Canada.

"Quebec has not gone as far, partly because English Canada has had a kind of a politically correct bath," Cummins said.

"But English Canada has learned it, and become more attuned to why these things are insulting."

Cummins pointed out that foreigners in China are sometimes called "big nose."

"It's a physical fact, our noses are bigger than theirs," she said. "So is that OK? Do we start calling them 'flat noses"? When you insist on people's physical features, you're insisting on saying they're 'other."'

Boisclair had used the expression many times but during the speech he piqued the ears of reporters for anglophone newspapers and made headlines.

It left many francophones wondering, "What is the big deal?"

Newspapers and newscasts aimed at francophone Quebec all but ignored the controversy before pundits weighed in Friday with a dismissive pen.

"Les yeux brides. . . Oh my God!" said the headline over a column in Le Soleil by Gilbert Lavoie, a perfectly bilingual voice of reason in the often heated arguments in Quebec culture and politics.

Some French-speaking Quebecers wondered if it was another case of anglophone Canadians bashing Quebec or separatists.

[Delenda]

Parti Quebecois leader might be insensitive, but he's no racist

No Quebec politician has shown more courage in standing for inclusiveness
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette

Published: Saturday, March 17, 2007

It's sadly ironic that Andre Boisclair should find himself on the defensive this week over an unfortunate choice of words many people, especially non-francophones, find racially offensive.

For if there is any currently active Quebec politician who has shown courage in standing for inclusiveness, against prevailing public opinion and criticism from members of his own party, it's Boisclair.

He is not Jacques Parizeau, who merely repeated on referendum night in cruder terms and in the presence of the foreign media the opinion he had previously expressed that sovereignists did not need the support of minorities.


Boisclair ran for the leadership of the Parti Quebecois on a platform that included bringing non-francophones into the party. During one of the leadership debates, he was booed by some of the PQ rank-and-file members present when he expressed pride in a Muslim from Madagascar who was representing the party in a Montreal by-election.

Among the three major leaders, he is the one who has most often resisted the temptation to pander to xenophobia over the "reasonable accommodation" of non-Christian religious customs. He has been criticized in his party for that, and for expressing the personal opinion that the crucifix has no place in the National Assembly of a supposedly secular society.

Most recently, he was the only party leader who realized it is the very opposite of integration to exclude a young Muslim girl from playing soccer with her non-Muslim teammates because she wears the head scarf known as the hijab. Over that, he was contradicted by one of his party's candidates during an election campaign.

So I've seen and heard enough of Boisclair to have concluded he doesn't have a racist bone in his body, and that although some people were offended by his remark, that was not his intent.

Apparently, Jean Charest and Mario Dumont feel the same way, because neither of his opponents in a hotly contested campaign demanded he apologize for what Charest understood was at worst an unfortunate choice of words.

Speaking in French about the competition Quebec students will face from their Asian counterparts, Boisclair had said he was surprised to see while studying at Harvard two years ago that about one-third of the students had "les yeux brides" - slanting eyes. The context of his remark suggests he meant no disrespect to Asians.

Or course Dumont, who owes the revival of his party to his opportunism in exploiting the accommodation issue, was in no position to criticize Boisclair. But perhaps it's no coincidence that Charest, who sympathized with Boisclair while saying he would not have expressed himself in the same words, is the most fluently bilingual of the three.

Generally speaking, anglophones found his remark offensive, while francophones did not. In fact, most French-language news reports of the speech in which he made the remark ignored it, while English-speaking journalists reported it.

It is not that francophones are racists and anglophones are not. What we have here is a cultural difference of opinion over when it is appropriate to use physical characteristics to describe members of a race. After all, don't even anglophones use the terms black or white, referring to skin colour, to describe people?

At most, Boisclair is guilty of insensitivity after the fact in not recognizing he had hurt some people, even if he had not meant to do so (and perhaps also for assuming anyone who looks different from the majority is a foreigner). When you step on someone's toe, even unintentionally, it's appropriate to apologize.

The incident might generate some sympathy for Boisclair among francophones who don't understand why he has been criticized or see him as the latest victim of political correctness or pushy minorities. They might admire him for refusing to apologize when he considers he did nothing wrong.

A few observers thought Boisclair won this week's campaign debate, which he badly needed to do in order to get voters to re-consider their generally poor opinion of him and to start taking back votes from Dumont's Action democratique du Quebec.

But most gave the victory to Dumont, and the polls seem to agree. (The only point on which there is unanimity is that the winner was not Charest.) In any case, the polls suggest the PQ has not yet received the boost it needed from Boisclair's performance.

So Boisclair could ill afford to lose a day to being distracted from his message and put on the defensive over whether he should apologize for offending people, even unintentionally.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

[Delenda]

André Boisclair's flawed vision

Mar 20, 2007 04:30 AM
Jsa-Che Lam

When I first started teaching, the frequent and casual use of the N-word among students bothered me immensely.

Students had no misgivings about the word. They asserted that its usage demonstrated camaraderie and familiarity between friends.

I remained unconvinced. This word was born out of racial oppression, and I found it demeaning and ugly.

The word's pervasive use in hip-hop culture upped its cool factor. With Tupac using it, the phrase earned vast street credibility. Unappeased, I just wanted them to cease and desist.

Reclaiming language to neutralize hatred and racism sounds empowering, but the N-word's transformation still didn't make it acceptable for widespread usage. Only a few could use it without turning themselves into racially charged lightning rods.

A number of students remained committed to using the N-word. To underscore my point, I called out to an Asian student in the classroom.

"How comfortable would you be using the C-word? What if we both used it?" Turning to the rest of the class, I asked, "Not quite the same effect, but it still stirs discomfort. So is there any difference?"

Nervous laughter and a few furrowed brows later, everyone got it.

To this day, I still believe that the use of certain words can't cleanse them of their original intent. Someone should tell André Boisclair, leader of the Parti Québécois, that "les yeux brides" (slanted eyes) remains offensive, regardless of his intentions.

The Boisclair controversy did not crack Page 1 of the Star but earned front-page status in Chinese language dailies nationwide.

Boisclair, who attended Harvard for one year, was addressing students in Trois-Rivières. The politician discussed a perceived increase of young overseas Asians attending North American universities, noting that "les yeux brides" comprise one-third of Harvard's undergraduate program.

Boisclair's motives are uncertain, but using dated racial stereotypes of over-ambitious Asians taking up too much room cast a sinister shadow over Quebec's already shaky record on race relations.

If Boisclair had been a GTA-based politician, these words would have swiftly ended his political career.

In Quebec, opinion polls indicate a close race among the three major parties in next week's provincial election. Boisclair's choice of words is not perceived as a political misstep and is considered inconsequential to his political aspirations.

Political rivals Jean Charest and Mario Dumont, in their defence of Boisclair's reputation, assert that he is not a racist or a person who meant any ill intent.

Although Boisclair's conduct has enraged race relations groups, he remains unrepentant and says an apology will not be forthcoming. Why anyone would find his language upsetting seems to confound this Harvard-educated politician.

By all accounts, meaning can be lost in translation. One of my favourite French terms is "mon petit chou." At its most literal, it translates as "my little cabbage." At its most colloquial, this term of endearment means "my sweetheart."

I take no offence in being called a little cabbage. However, there is nothing charming when someone focuses on the genetic makeup of my eyes as a means to judge my identity and self-worth.

"Les yeux brides" indicates neither affection nor playfulness. There may be no racial intent behind Boisclair's words but his political judgment isn't the most astute. The term is antiquated and doesn't belong in today's world.

Eyes are as political to Asians as hair is to African Americans. In both cases, they become a statement of individual beauty and public acceptance. The eyes may be the window of the soul but, for an Asian, the eyes also make us vulnerable to racial insults.

When I attended an elementary school that had a predominantly Asian population, one kid in the schoolyard would taunt the Chinese kids by pushing his fingers against his temples until his eyes achieved the desired insult. After enduring an indefinite period of shunning, this kid learned how to play nice and we eventually forgave him for making fun of us.

Since I don't live in Quebec, I can't push Boisclair out of the political sandbox by refusing to vote for him. His actions are that of an aspiring politician, not those of a child.

The Boisclair situation stirs up dormant memories of one of the worst public relations blunders involving the Chinese Canadians. Almost 30 years ago, W5 ran a story about how "foreign students" dominated Canadian university campuses. To underscore its point, the show used footage of Chinese faces, proof that foreign interlopers were edging Canadian students out of spots in university. Those foreigners turned out to be homegrown Chinese Canadians.

A politician's reference to Asian dominance as part of his political arsenal still achieves the same effect it did three decades ago. What upset Chinese Canadians then still stirs up ill feelings today.

One could explain to André Boisclair why "les yeux brides" is both divisive and inappropriate. However, I'm afraid that unless he could experience the world through my eyes, he would never truly understand.