I remember going to a “Quebecois” school in Quebec where I first learned about racial discrimination when I was younger. The difference between a “Canadian” school and a Quebecois school in Quebec is the Quebecois school generally had separatist influences, they are relatively less diverse than the Canadian schools, there is no trace of anything distinctly Canadian, and there is no assistance to students who do not speak French as a native language.
Canadian schools, on the other hand, had a diverse student body, had some programmes for non-French speaking students, and put down racism in their school by promoting multiculturalism. My early experiences were both at a Canadian (St. Lawrence School) and Quebecois school (Ecole Samuel-De Champlain) where I spent 2 years in each school when I was young.
The first instance of racism I experienced at a Quebec school called Ecole Samuel-De Champlain, was when I was entering the school in the morning. While I was walking to class, some French kid kept making “Ching-Chang-Chong” noises while looking at me while a few kids called me a “Chin-tok (Chink in French)”. The kids that were around me simply ignored it as if it was normal while a handful laughed. At another instance, some French kids beat me up, trashed the things in my bookbag, and told me to “Go back to China” in French because they felt immigrants were taking his parents’ jobs or diluting the Quebecois spirit.
Then there was that second grade teacher named Sylvie L, who still teaches in the school as a grade 1 teacher. At that time she was in her late thirties, and I learned later that her husband was unemployed. I knew when I was younger I was a bit of a troublemaker, but I always thought it was strange how she would only give stern warnings to the White kids in the class while throwing me out of her class for the entire day when I did something wrong. This was strange because I did similar things to the other kids, but I got a harsher punishment and she never called me back to class once she threw me out.
I think these things were related to immigration and that’s why I get disgusted when people opposed to immigration rabidly deny that the issue has a racist element to it. I can definitely say, it has a racist element since I had the luxury of experiencing it first-hand in Quebec, Canada.
I really don’t like talking about this part of my life but it is a crude reminder of who I am. It’s also a reason why I unlearned the French language, abandoned my Catholic faith, and one of the reasons why it took several years to come to terms with myself.
My experiences in America are much better than Quebec. Although there is more ignorance than rampant racism here compared to Quebec, I want to do what I can to eliminate negative racial stereotypes and explore what it means to be Asian-American.
Tags: anti-Chinese, Brossard, Discrimination, Ecole Samuel-De Champlain, Quebec, Quebec Nationalism, Quebec Separatism, Racism, Xenophobia
You are witnessing the ugly side of nationalism. Pre 60′s French Quebec had a defeatist mentality, but since the Quiet Revolution, the French people are taking pride in their roots. Like with the rise of China, Chinese people worldwide are becoming conscious of their Chineseness. There are a lot of similarities between Quebec and China, both were suppressed by foreign powers and both are regaining their national pride. I sympathize with what you went through, you were a victim of the torrents of history. The US is a true superpower. The fact that a black person is able to run for president is a sign of a country that is able to provide world leadership in race issues.
Obama needs to win before you can declare the US as a progressive country
Not only has he won, but I believe he will be re-elected as well.
Hej!
I’m sorry that happened to you.
How did you unlearn French, btw?
Cheers!
1. Stop speaking it.
2. Replace with another language
3. Avoid French speakers
Hi,
I am a bilingual (mother tongue english) 30 year old female born in Quebec, I have lived here for most of my life except for a few years which I have lived in the United States. For the last 2 years I have been living in a small north eastern town in Quebec. The reason for this move was to be closer to my mom who was really sick at the time. Since living here I have become extremely unhappy. The racial and sexist discrimination is worse than I ever could have thought. In the past I have lived in Montreal which is very multicultural. I have noticed discrimination before but like I have seen since I have moved away from Montreal. It is a complete shame that I am embarrassed to speak english because everyone stops around you and stares and this is not an over exaggeration, they literally stop and stare. Some even comment on it. I can’t find a job, it has been a year that I have been looking. I am an educated and completely bilingual individual with much experience under my belt and I can’t even get a position at the local store. I have tried everywhere. Hundreds of applications…no phone calls. I have never had this problem before, it has never taken more than a few days to get a response and eventually work. If someone mubbles something that you didn’t HEAR and you ask then politely if they can repeat, if the noticed that you have an accent, they will repeat what they said very nastly, like they are annoyed that you didn’t understand them even though it was only because you didn’t hear what they have said. They automatically assume that you didn’t understand. Apparently, according to the french I am not a Quebecer, I am Canadian because I am english. I guess that literally means that I was not born in Quebec…which I believe I was. So I would say I am provinceless. If Quebec would separate from Canada one day and I am no longer a Canadian what would I be…according to the french theory that would make me homeless. What would I say if some asked me my nationality, I would have to response I AM NOTHING. The whole thing that makes all these matters worse is that the Quebec government is the leader of this cult. The discrimination starts at the top and works its way down. If Quebec is part of Canada why aren’t all services bilingual. You can’t find any important information in English all french. Funny how you need French to work in Quebec but you don’t need english. Many Quebec companies service you in french and no english. There is so much more that I can vent about but my conclusion being is that I no longer have respect for Quebec (the leader (government) and its cult followers). Presently, I am sadly looking to move out of Quebec. It is sad only because i am going to be leaving everyone I know and love behind…this includes my mom. If I stay here my quality of life will be non existent. It already is. So be it.
It’s so sad that Quebec’s xenophobia and alleged intolerance is now a provincial stereotype even joked upon in Canadian comedy shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkd9nCdJj6U
I was born and grow up in China. I have been in Montreal Quebec for five years, and I feel very depressed about the discrimination I receive from where I work. I plan to leave Quebec, living under discrimination for the rest of life is a tragedy.
There has been a culture war in Quebec: those who want the province to be progressive and tolerant like France and Canada and there are those who want to keep it “Pure and French”. It seems the latter is winning the culture war.
Also, Quebecois schools do not sing the Canadian National Anthem in any way shape or form while the “English” schools sing either the English or French version…
You generalise so much, it’s almost like a lower form of racism.
I’ve lived all around Quebec and I can tell you not everyone is racist. It’s mostly just few people (living outside city) who haven`t met any other cultures that end up having weird reaction/behaviors upon meeting those individuals because they`re facing the ”unknown”.
Brossard is a real place and these things did happen there. I am sure you get none of this crap because you are White and able to speak half decent French.
I am totally agree what u just said, I live in Brossard for like 17 years, those who are white have no problem for they done but if u were colour even u build a fence on your own turf, they would judge u and blaming u for what u done. It doesn’t matter u could speak fluent french or not, the white just doesn’t like ur culture ethnic.
Better get something straight here flq:
Remember this expression: “It takes only a few rotten apples to spoil the barrel”!
There are a hell of a lot more than just a few rotten apples in the radical nationalist camp.
I should know this. I once hung out with Mario Beaulieu and his crowd when I was a McGill student way back in 1982. Mario Beaulieu is today the president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society here in Montreal. They are a very radically anti-anglo, anti-Canada, anti-federalist and anti-immigrant association.
One night at an outside terrace on St. Denis st. in 1982 or 83, Mario told me I wasn’t a real Quebecois because my Mother was anglo/american! And I spoke english far too well too!! I was therefore an anglised or colonized sellout!!
There are other radical hate mongering groups just like this in Quebec and you better know they are not going anywhere. Mainly they’ve got nowhere to go and nothing better to do. Most did not finsh their formal education and can’t have normal careers, so their careers are associations like the above and they go around spewing ther crap and making headlines and contributing greater and greater damage to quebecs reputation. It only takes a few but when they get as much media attention as they are want to get, the result can be pretty effectively damaging for the whole society.
It definately can’t be too good for the reputation of this province when leaders of official politcal parties like Pauline Marois actually embrace these hate mongering groups and actually goes to their highly pubilsized meetings that appear in all the news the next day.
Every summers, there’s thousands of Quebecois who travel across the country all the way to British Columbia to pick fruits or plant trees and obviously, learn english. No racist individuals would do such things.
Yes they do. Racist or not people can travel as they please and do fun things. Just because you had a super-fun experience in Quebec Province doesn’t mean its great for everyone, unless you’re White of course.
I think everyone from Parizeau’s generation needs to just die if Quebec wants to shake off that backward, insular, xenophobic mentality that is so fashionable under Marois and her cronies. The FLQ wanted to purge the province of the Anglo overlords and their supporters did except they are now the overlords and the allophones/newcomers are now the new underclass where French-Canadians in Quebec use to be.
Every summer we have plenty of Quebecois engineers working on contract in the Middle-East and earn good salaries and are welcomed and when they come back they treat immigrants like shit. I am Canadian Arabic origin and I completed high-school, DEC, Bac, and a masters in engineering here in quebec at Polyt. a Montreal and I am struggling finding a job since 3 years during my studies…lol. My recommendation to all immigrants, if you have a higher degree or skilled immigrants, do not waste your time in Quebec just leave and you will be very fine. There is a wonderfull side of Canada that you should discover, People are very very nice everywhere…with the exception of Quebec of course. -Take what I say seriously, don’t waste your time serving here-.
Hey,
I’m a french canadian who now lives in Hong Kong. I heard today two black guy buinessmen speaking in french in the subway who reffered to the chineses as “Chin tok”.
I had a vague remembrance of myself reffering to chineses as “Chin tok” when I was a kid, which made me find this blog post on Google.
I’m very surprised and sad to see how much this racist slur and behavior affected you and I must agree that where I am originally from, this must have been very typical. I am myself sorry if I ever contributed to this.
On the other hand, you must know that racism is present threwout the world and Quebec is just none-the-less different. Having spent quite a bit of time here, I have seen similar stuff hapenned toward other races, such as indians or mainland chineses.
Remi.
Hey Remi,
Those two French black guys are no better than the racists in Quebec. If they were in Quebec, they would be subjected to slurs starting with the letter “N” either in English or in French. I have read accounts of Haitians and West Africans who have problems living in Quebec despite being fluent in French and holding advanced degrees.
Well, if you didn’t do anything wrong or were not influenced by lesser minds, I would not burden myself with guilt. However, you should try to persuade others to not engage in such destructive attitudes.
I have the impression Quebec was xenophobic or racist due to the belief that all immigrants who come to Quebec are indoctrinated by the Canadian government to oppose separatism or from the belief immigrants use Quebec as a backdoor to naturalisation then moving out of Quebec once they are citizens. Also, there is the perception the immigrants living in Quebec are diluting the pure French character and are getting in the way of separatism.
Racism is everywhere yet Quebec was pretty bad compared to the ignorant nonsense in America or Asia, which was nowhere near the levels of what I faced in that province.
Me
Discrimination exists very well in the Quebec society, mainly in the work sector. Many visible minorities can’t not find job after they graduate from Universities. Some of my friends are still looking for Job in Montreal after they finished their Masters in 2006. It’s difficult for them to move other provinces where there is more openness because they speak only French. As a Bilingual, just as my brother, I moved from Montreal after my graduation to seek job. Many immigrants move from Quebec for the same reason. I encourage immigrants to learn english and move from Quebec. Other provinces are not perfetc but far better than Quebec.
Having said that Quebec is better than Europe because they tried to show they don’t discriminate but hiring few minorities. In Europe, mostly France they don’t even bother. It’s make me wonder if French and racism go hand in hand.
pira , go fuck yourself.
any of you realize that calling someone racist is racism in itself? you are all talking about anecdotal events and claim it is a general phenomenon, yes the problem is that anti-chinese discrimination or so is not addressed as much as it should in quebec since the emphasis is on anti-english and anti-native american sentiment. personally, i highly doubt your story that you were beat up for being chinese.
by the way, look up gerard bouchard who said that quebeckers behave like a minority scared of assimilation even if they are a majority in their territory, the reason is simple, they are a minority in quebec, independance would help a whole lot to stop racism in quebec. but most of you chauvinist canadians cannot care. look up the g20 protests where quebeckers were arrested for being quebeckers, none of you cares it seem.
Oh God. Another maoist claiming I was never beat up for being Chinese because I am a supposed racist for talking about my account of ethnic discrimination in Quebec. Fortunately, you are not one of those transplants who is dumb enough to believe that Montreal reflects all of Quebec province. I still cannot believe someone like you claiming to be a progressive would try to pretend my personal problems with racial discrimination never happened.
Pira’s remarks are a bit extreme but there are problems with ethnic minorities in France and Quebec province. Yes, anti-allophone discrimination is often overshadowed by anti-Anglo and anti-native discrimination and this in itself is discriminatory.
I hope you are talking about Lucien Bouchard and it’s really naive to believe independence would be a magic bullet to solving ALL OF QUEBEC’s problems. Over 80% of Quebec’s population is made of white, French-speaking people. How does this make them a minority in their own “distinct nation”?
If Quebec was independent, minorities would still be discriminated as they are now and the entire province would be at the mercy of Wall St. bankers due to their high debt levels and from losing Federal aid. Is the independent Quebec you dream socialist, racist, and at the mercy of bankers?
Speaking of G20, all protesters were assaulted or raped regardless of their place of origin. Stop trying to make Quebecois sound like holocaust victims or Tibetans when it is nowhere near those levels.
Hey Pira, congrats for the nice blog, I am really impressed. Yes, I agree with you that there is a lot of racism in Quebec, and mainly on the workplace. Me personally, was a victim (may be bit exagerated) of this strange behavior from people calling themselves ‘quebecois’. My boss, he is one of them is always giving me at least 3-4 project more, and demanding to finish them at least a month before my ‘quebecois’ collegues. I am neither chinese, neither coloured – just a person with accent. And I see the difference in the behaviour and requirements when it comes to quebecian emploee, and for everybody else. If you have noticed there is even no organisation that can protect the english speaking people in Quebec, may be we have to work in this direction? OR MAY BE THE DECISSIONS FOR QUEBEC AND CANADA REMOTELY TAKEN FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE?
Its quite sad that the white, French-speaking quebecois treat you differently because you’re not one of them. These people don’t understand that this maltreatment is the reason why they will never be a country and why people outside the province have mixed feelings about them and their cause. For me I rather live in New Jersey than Quebec after living in both places.
I also have an experience to share actually would like one day to publish that in a newspaper, I am an immigrant who came here 10 years ago even though I landed in Toronto my fate brought me to Quebec.After building a decent career working permenantly for several reputable companies in USA-Toronto & Montreal for the last ten years, most recently I reached quite a high position in one of the major companies in Montreal, I can not say that all my quebecois colleagues were racist but I faced the following situtaion, the company changed its president , in a meeting with my boss and the new president, the new president looked at the organization chart and said to my boss(non ca ne se fait pas), so he simply siad to my boss you can not do that, couple months later, human resources informed me that I have been terminated,as I did not fulfill the requirement of my position, they advised me that its is better to sign for the sake of my reputation, when I refused to sign they called the security and escorted me out of the company.
Even though all my evaluation reports for the 3.5 years i have been with this company were graded as fully as expected and I am a designated individual in my field with a designation from both Canada and USA.
For the first time in 10 years I find my self jobless with two professional designations, when I apply for work no one wants to hire me as this employer does not provide a reference and they did their best to ruin my reputation and destroy the career that I built in the last ten years. Another interesting point to mention is when I joined the company I had an anglophone boss they fired him six months later and hired an individual (quebecoise) in a very high position (Vice president) without a professional designation in his field and without pertinent experience. I wonder how the major shareholders agree with that it is not for the best interest of the company, so the conclusion we fire designated and qualified employees (if they are foreigners) but we keep nonqualified individuals if they are form Quebec.
I would appreciate any comments that could help me solve this dilemma.
You should report this case of wrongful termination to the anti-discrimination groups in Canada and go forward with your story on the Montreal Gazette, the Globe and Mail and the National Post. People need to know this tribalist mentality is a detriment to Quebec society and business practices.
Alexi:
Contact: BUREAU DE LA COMMISSION DES NORMES DU TRAVAIL
Address: 2,complexe Desjardins
Tour de l’Est, 24e etage
C.P. 730, succ.Desjardins
Montreal, Qc H5B 1B8
Grande region de Montreal : 514-873-7061
Appels interurbains: 1-800-265-1414
Internet: http://www.cnt.gouv.qc.ca
All this contact info is on the back of one of their 1998 publications I never pitched out. No guanantee it’s all good, but at least you have something. Otherwise try looking in the blue pages of the phone book under : emplois.
You can always get a lawyer in the yellow pages that will work on retainer too. There are about 10,000 lawyers in Mtl. maybe more!
Best of luck to you,
Maurice
Alexi, leave Quebec and go to the Middle-east, Calgary “where i stay” or USA, they are disperate for qualified ppl like you and they don’t ask any references, they need you and they give you anything you want. I am a starter as engineer so I can’t help you much however, just make me a favor…please vote for Mario to get Quebec out of the way.
Alexi:
Since the company (forced) you to sign some kind of non-recrimination document you might have to get a lawyer who can argue they forced you to sign it under some pre-supposed threat of a reprisal of some kind that caused you great anxiety. You were not in the preseance of legal counsel and were therefore coerced into signing the document feeling vulneable and threatened .
Maurice
From all what you`ve written ,so far, I confirm that really there is racism in Quebec.Even though i do speak perfect frech and that i am completly bilingual, with all the qualifications and experience that a person could have, icould not get a permanent job.
I rather move where no french is spoken…
Bonjour!
I am a nurse from the Philippines. I am processing my papers to study and eventually work in Quebec. Currently, I am learning French and I already spent a lot of money to the agency. I don’t know what to do. I’m shaking right now in fear that I have done a terrible decision.
Is it worst if you are serving in a health care setting? or is it tolerable? I think I’m in a situation where there is no backing out. My parents are gonna kill me if I will withdraw my application. Money is already spent.
I cannot believe I am in this position! Please help me!
Yeah I don’t think everyone in Quebec is a racist. Kids can be cruel. Just think, they’re stuck in Quebec whereas you got to immigrate to the U.S.A. lol
I rather live in New Jersey than Quebec.
Uh, well, considering that New Jersey is the third wealthiest state in the United States, I imagine that many people would.
Signed,
Someone who unfortunately moved to Quebec and now is desperate to get back to New Jersey.
I’m Chinese Canadian,I agree with the discrimination in Quebec. I’m from Vancouver, I don’t feel a single bit being discriminated and had coasian friends in high school and even nannies who are white and willing to take care of me. However, when I moved to Montreal for university. I can feel vivid discrimination here. I had a terrible experience of one person making fun of me while I tried hard to be friend with him but still treated harshly in the end. I think after I graduate I wanna either move back to Vancouver or go to America.