Are the people of Quebec racist?      

The province of Quebec is in Canada in which the main language spoken in that province is French although English is also spoken in that province along with other languages.                                    

Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination  and  prejudice  towards people based on their race or ethnicity. The ideology underlying racist practices often includes the idea that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different due to their social behavior and their innate capacities as well as the idea that they can be ranked as inferior or superior.

Two good examples of racism can be found in Germany’s past  and in the United States’ past when in Germany, millions of Jews were exterminated by the Nazis and when in the United States, Blacks were originally slaves and then later they were discriminated by the White population.

Alas, racism is everywhere and as to be expected, even Quebec where minorities are treated as second-class citizens.

 The leader of the Parti Quebecois triggered boos from the legislature when he said that after more than one decade of Liberal rule in Quebec, only 38 people from the province's minority groups work in the liquor control board, which has 6,000 employees. After 15 years of the Liberal regime there are only 312 minorities out of 20,000 employees in Hydro-Quebec. About 400 of Montreal's police officers are members of a visible minority –which comes to just 7.4 percent of the number of police officers in the city. There are only 12 non-white firefighters out of 2,400. The Commission of social development and the Public Security in Montreal said that there should be roughly 800 to reflect the city's population. These figures are proof that Quebec per se is a racist province.

It's inevitable that the majority of all-white police officers will have difficulty relating to the minority community if only white police officers are dealing with minority persons when they don't understand social problems the minority persons are experiencing.

Minorities have to feel that they are part of the system and that they can participate in it. And equally. there must be a reciprocal attitude towards them, to show that they are needed. but unfortunately this isn't evident in Quebec.

In a report tabled at City Hall by the Commission of social development and the Public Security urged city hall to change its’ hiring practices.

City councillor Marvin Rot and said, “They )Minorities) really want the services to come back with an answer saying why you aren't able to hire minorities into your service. What's the impediment, and if there is an impediment, what are you going to do about it?”

The Black Coalition of Quebec said that just is not enough, especially since roughly 30 percent of the island's (Montreal) inhabitants belong to a visible minority.

More than two years after the city of Montreal began a push to hire more visible minorities, spotting a non-white individual working for the police force or the fire department remains a challenge.

The  Black Coalition said Montreal and Quebec need to take active steps to hire ethnic minorities as police officers and firefighters. The firefighters' union responded by saying that it wants to see the best candidates hired, no matter their origins, race or gender.

Tests have shown that a Quebecer with a Franco-Quebec-sounding name like Simard or Trémblay has a 60 per cent better chance of getting a job interview than someone named Ahmed or Carlos or even Wilson.

Systemic racism in any government system cannot be eliminated if it continues to do the same thing  it has  been doing in the past. If there's no political will to change this situation, then nothing will change.

The long process of revamping the province's immigration policies will be successful when racism and discrimination in the workplace comes to an end. Unfortunately, it still persists in Quebec's workplaces.

Meanwhile the Quebec government should implement concrete actions to help minorities as opposed to having more useless public discussions.

Quebec looks bad internationally if the province can’t have an open and valid discussion on racism in Quebec’s society.

Quebec should look to its neighbor (Ontario) as to how that province deals with discrimination. Recently, an employer refused to hire a qualified member of Canada’s minority based on the fact that the applicant was a member of the minority people in Canada. The employer was made to pay tthe applicant, $20,000. The Province of Ontario doesn’t tolerate bigots.