Did you hate the Quebec government’s anti-racist ad? Did it bother you that we told you that young blacks gathered in a park at nightfall, we call them Quebec friends?
You might as well take your trouble patiently: the campaign will last three years. And the Minister responsible for the Fight against Racism, Benoit Charette, hopes that the next ads will bother you, too.
We have said everything about these ads. We found them insulting to the Anglos, too nationalist, perpetuating prejudices, caricatured, infantilizing …
“I was told: ‘Frankly, we are not like that in Quebec! It is not because we see a group of young blacks in a park that we associate them with street gangs ”, says Benoit Charette in an interview.
But now, this was not the impression of the blacks questioned in the focus groups. Nor that of the police directors who told the minister to receive “many, many, many calls to 911”.
Calls like, “Uh… there are black kids in the park. Could you send a patrol? ”
This is proof, said the Minister, that these ads reflect the prejudices that exist in Quebec society. They not only exist, but they rot it.
Benoit Charette is not masochistic; he doesn’t hope future commercials will always be so controversial. But he doesn’t want a campaign “sanitized to the point that no one notices” either.
“We have to talk about racism. It has to offend the sensibilities of some people, he insists. We can never stop racism if we do not tackle prejudices that may be unconscious. ”
The societal campaign responds to one of the 25 recommendations of the report of the Working Group against Racism tabled in December 2020 by Ministers Nadine Girault and Lionel Carmant.
A year later, Minister Charette claims to be “on the move” on each of the recommendations. He did not choose the easiest to achieve. Safety, health, education, work: it works on all fronts.
First of all, that of racial profiling. A big piece. Bill 18 tabled Wednesday by the Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, puts an end to random police arrests based on discriminatory grounds.
In other words, the police in the province will now have to have a good reason to stop people. Skin color is absolutely not one of them.
The measure was eagerly awaited, to say the least. “In all the meetings we have had, this is the reality that generated the most pain and frustration,” says Benoit Charette. The psychological impact, for victims of profiling, is often devastating.
Does Benoit Charette fear a police disengagement? Does the fear of being filmed, of having your name displayed in the newspapers or of seeing your career shattered risk causing police officers to refuse to intervene with visible minorities?
“It is a phenomenon that must be avoided at all costs,” replied the Minister. At the same time, there is an overrepresentation in the arrests of certain groups that make up Quebec society. It is an established fact. One can not deny it. ”
Speaking of established facts …
As Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Benoit Charette has very few facts or serious studies to justify the third link. To be honest, he doesn’t.
As minister responsible for the fight against racism, he is part of a government strongly criticized for its refusal to recognize systemic racism …
Should we rename him Minister of Ungrateful Tasks?
Benoit Charette, in any case, seems determined to prove that he does not intend to serve as a green plant.
Twenty-five million to create mixed police-social workers patrols; 20 million to the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse to reduce the delays in processing discrimination complaints; 130 million over two years to better recognize the skills of immigrants … the announcements follow one another.
And, for once, budgets seem to follow.
The recognition of skills and diplomas acquired abroad has been dragging on for decades. “Often, these are talents that are wasted,” underlines Benoit Charette.
Enough, taxi drivers with diplomas in their country of origin.
The Minister met with representatives of professional orders to summon them to unblock things. “They always invoke the famous protection of the public; that’s their mandate. We must get rid of the mentality that this protection of the public is guaranteed only by training in Quebec. ”
This mentality, he adds, “is not a direct manifestation of racism, but, at the same time, when a person arrives in Quebec and fails to exploit his full potential, a mechanism can very quickly develop. Certain cycles can bring it closer to poverty and other social issues. The best way to avoid any form of discrimination is to recognize the potential of people who ask only that, to contribute to the development of Quebec society ”.
I listen to the minister, and suddenly it hits me. Is he not describing a phenomenon which goes beyond the individual aspect of racism? A dynamic which disadvantages certain groups and which generates inequalities?
Isn’t he talking about… systemic racism?
It seems to me that it is.
It seems to me that the government is attacking systemic racism by asking professional orders to review their practices, by prohibiting random police arrests, by striving to make the public service less white, by imposing cultural safety training on workers. of the health network …
It seems to me that this is exactly what this government is doing, the very first to have appointed a minister responsible for the fight against racism. But hey, it’s not Benoit Charette who will confirm it to me …
I still ask him if he does not feel a little stuck in this debate, between those who will be so wary that he refuses to recognize systemic racism and those who would never forgive him for recognizing it.
Not really, he replies. Of the dozens of people involved in the fight against racism he has met in recent months, barely two or three have seen fit to tackle the issue head on with him.
For the others, the message was clear: they wanted action. And above all, the means to act. “Ultimately, if we just stop at an expression and do nothing to correct the situation, we will not have contributed more to changing mentalities. ”