Quebec worry more about Muslim immigration than Canadians generally

An internet poll, commissioned by the French-language service of CBC, Radio Canada, questioned 2 513 respondents across Canada, including 1 024 French speakers from Quebec on several issues including immigration.

“If you don’t talk about religion, there’s an overwhelming human side to us.… The minute you introduce religion, it’s gone,” CROP president Alain Giguère told CBC.

In Quebec, some 32 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed to a Trump-style Muslim travel ban, as opposed to only 25 percent of Canadians nationwide, while sixty-five percent would welcome a new Catholic church erected in their neighborhood but only 40 percent would welcome a mosque. Other Canadians were 76 percent and 56 percent in favor, respectively.

Around 57 percent in the French-speaking province felt Muslims were “poorly” or “somewhat poorly” integrated into society, ten percent higher than other Canadians. Muslims ranked the lowest in a list of minority and immigrant groups, compared to 72 percent approval for Jewish immigrants, 82 percent for Haitians, and 87 percent for Asians.

More people in Quebec – 62 per cent versus 48 per cent in the rest of Canada – believed the Muslim veil, or hijab, to be a sign of submission.

Giguère said the results show Canada is a divided country and that the poll results show a populist, Trump-style politician could find that he or she has a platform. “In Canada, we haven’t found it yet but there’s room for that,” Giguère said. “Someone will come one day, that’s for sure.”

But only 21 per cent of respondents said they would want Canada to have a Trump-style politician. A Conservative party candidate Kellie Leitch, had proposed earlier that immigrants should be screened for their willingness to adopt Canadian values.

Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée told CBC that Quebec was often perceived as more intolerant toward immigrants than other parts of Canada, but unjustly so.

“The numbers between English Canada and Quebec are very similar,” said Lisée.

“So when we constantly put Quebec on trial, it’s deeply unjust because Quebec, in my opinion, is within the Canadian average and above average in the Western world right now when it comes to tolerating immigration. Several studies have shown that over the past few years.”

Last year, Pegida Watch Canada, a Facebook group with 120 members which advocates “against the anti-immigrant hate group”, protested against a panel sponsored by JDL (Jewish Defense League) on the implications of the Islamic immigration to the West.

Paul Weston, leader of Pegida UK, and Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society, were invited to discuss on March 10, 2016 “The Threat of Radical Islamic Immigration and the Erosion of our Freedoms” at the Zionist Centre in Toronto.