In September 2010, Martin Patriquin’s article, published in Maclean’s, presenting Quebec as “the most corrupt province in Canada” had raised an outcry. The House of Commons had even seen fit to adopt a unanimous motion to denounce the “prejudices conveyed” by the author.
Quebec’s reputation takes another hit for its cold in another text by Mr. Patriquin published in the November issue of the magazine The Walrus under the title “How the Quebec Human Rights Commission ousted its first black president”.
This is, of course, the sad story of Tamara Thermitus, whose appointment was approved by the National Assembly in February 2017 and who resigned in November 2018 to avoid being dismissed following a report from the Ombudsperson, who noted “the atmosphere of suspicion and terror” she had created within the organization.
Mr. Patriquin’s article challenges the “political and journalistic consensus in Quebec” on this affair. Like Mme Thermitus herself claimed as much at the time, he argues that she was instead the victim of a “smear campaign based on her gender and skin color”. In short, a fine case of systemic racism.
The problem was that “for some people, the idea that Quebec could be the scene of systemic racism was inconceivable”. As luck would have it, the ombudsman’s investigation was triggered following anonymous complaints denouncing the behavior of Ms.me Thermitus, just four days after the Couillard government announced it would oversee a broad consultation on systemic racism, which was ultimately scrapped.
In reality, Mr. Patriquin took over the so-called “glass cliff” theory, developed in the United Kingdom, which the lawyer and researcher Rachel Zellars had applied to the case of Mrs.me Thermitus in an article published in the Huffington Post in December 2018, seeing it as an illustration of the “particular type of violence reserved for black people in Quebec”.
According to this theory, racialized women are often recruited into management positions within organizations where there is organizational dysfunction. They would thus be placed—or thrown from the top of this “glass cliff”—into situations of inevitable failure, which would confirm their inability to assume leadership functions.
When M.me Thermitus took office, the Human Rights Commission itself admitted to experiencing serious problems: cumbersome structure, duplication of functions, unacceptable delays in the processing of complaints, etc.
In any organization, whoever undertakes to clean up inevitably causes dissatisfaction. The question, of course, was whether the employees who filed the complaint against Mr.me Thermitus were simply disturbed in their habits or if his behavior amounted to abuse of authority.
No one has ever questioned his legal skills. Upon his arrival at the Commission, his record of service was impeccable. A racialized person, however, is not more immune than another to the Peter principle, wanting everyone to eventually reach their level of incompetence. There may be a “cliff of glass”, but a great lawyer may very well be a poor administrator, whatever his color. Acknowledging the existence of systemic racism does not mean that we should ignore the inability to lead.
The Ombudsperson’s report was never made public. In a press conference, however, she had criticized Mme Thermitus of “serious breaches of ethical and deontological standards”.
We certainly cannot suspect Premier Couillard or his Minister of Justice, Stéphanie Vallée, of having harbored any prejudice against the woman they named. If there ever was a government in Quebec that was totally committed to multiculturalism, this is it.
In his article, Mr. Patriquin seems to rely entirely on an assistant to Mr.me Thermitus, François Laberge, who unconditionally supported his boss, to get an idea of the merits of the complaints made against her.
Obviously, he did not see fit to speak to the complainants himself. At the time, The Press had conducted a series of interviews that discussed the “toxic” climate, “psychological distress” and “lots and lots of suffering”.
It would no doubt have been unfortunate to have had to put a few caveats to this portrait of an intolerant Quebec, which refuses to look at itself in the mirror. As Mark Twain said, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.