Quebec Separatism Brings Fear of Intolerance : Canada: Minorities and English speakers see edge of xenophobia in the province’s drive for independence.

Lilian Yossa is a child of the new Montreal. The 25-year-old daughter of Egyptian immigrants, Yossa is a graduate student in engineering at McGill University who was educated at French-language schools, speaks English with her friends and feels at home in the multicultural crosscurrents of Quebec’s largest city.

At least she felt that way until last week when, watching the televised returns of Quebec’s referendum on separation from Canada, she saw Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau blame the separatists’ narrow defeat on “money and the ethnic vote.” And she heard him vow, “We shall reap our revenge.”

“I was very, very angry; I was hurt,” she said a few days later. “I have as much right to be here as anybody else.”

Although Parizeau’s speech was widely denounced, even some separatists acknowledge that it is indicative of a thread of ethnocentrism and intolerance that runs through the fabric of French Canadian nationalism in Quebec.

The phrase nous et les autres --”us and the others”--has been used for generations to inspire French-speaking Quebeckers. Fifty or 60 years ago, it was a term of affirmation in the face of a sometimes oppressive English-speaking elite.

More recently, it has been raised in arguments describing the putative threat to the French language posed by new immigrants and by the surrounding English-speaking populations of the rest of Canada and the United States. And protection of French and the Quebecois culture it has spawned is the primary calling of the separatist movement.

“The secessionist ideology is essentially xenophobic,” argued William Johnson, a Montreal writer and political analyst who has written two books on the subject. “The theme of [Parizeau’s] speech is, ‘We are an aggrieved people . . . and we will only reach the apotheosis of our existence by becoming our own state.’ ”

“There is an element within the [separatist] movement that is dedicated to advancing the interests of French Canadian Quebeckers above all else . . . and the highest expression of that is having their own country,” said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Quebec division of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

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In his speech, Parizeau pointedly noted that 60% of French-speaking voters approved the referendum proposal, which would have empowered Parizeau’s government to declare sovereignty, but English speakers and immigrants lined up more than 90% against the measure. The referendum lost by a margin of 50.6% to 49.4%.

French speakers, or Francophones, make up 82% of Quebec’s 7.3 million residents, while English speakers, or Anglophones, and those who claim neither French nor English as their mother tongue account for the rest. The latter group includes most new immigrants, who have been the fastest-growing segment of the population recently.

Quebec absorbed 212,413 immigrants from 1990 to 1994, and only 11,747 came from France. Lebanon, Hong Kong and Haiti sent the largest numbers.

Montreal, the historic meeting place of English- and French-speaking Canada, has become the destination of most of the province’s newcomers. The city also is home to a vibrant and longstanding Jewish community, which numbers about 100,000.

Community organizations report relatively little racial, ethnic or religious tension among individuals, but fears were voiced that Parizeau’s comments might prompt retaliation against minorities and reinforce historic prejudices in favor of so-called pure laine Quebeckers. The expression translates as “pure wool” but means those who claim ancestry from the region’s 18th-Century French colonials.

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Parizeau declined to apologize for his remarks, although he did concede that his words were “too harsh.” And he denied that the controversy had any impact on his decision, announced Oct. 31, to resign at the end of the year.

Plenty of others in the separatist movement, however, have scrambled to distance themselves. Lucien Bouchard, the leader of the separatist opposition in Canada’s federal Parliament and potential successor to Parizeau as provincial premier, publicly repudiated the remarks.

But Bouchard himself had drawn complaints two weeks earlier when he noted that French-speaking Quebeckers have one of the lowest birthrates among the “white races.” Bouchard later said he regretted the comment.

Separatist leaders have had plenty of practice in such damage control over the past year.

Much of the controversy has focused on the prospect of a majority Francophone vote for separation being “thwarted” by near-monolithic opposition from English speakers and immigrants, precisely the scenario that developed.

For example:

* Shortly before the referendum, separatist political scientist Pierre Drouilly wrote in Montreal’s largest French-language newspaper that such a situation would lead to “the conclusion that now the French Quebec nation is democratically subject to the English Canadian nation. Against other peoples on Earth, you shoot. Against French Quebeckers, you vote. In some ways, that’s more efficient.”

* Philippe Pare, a member of Bouchard’s separatist party in Parliament, said last spring that non-French speakers should abstain from the vote and let Francophones settle the issue themselves.

* Bernard Landry, Parizeau’s deputy premier, said last year that “it is not healthy that democracy in Montreal is at the complete mercy of the vote of ethnic communities.”

* After a Montreal school banned female Muslim students from wearing an Islamic head scarf, or hajib , in class last year, the head of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, a separatist stronghold, said the hajib , seen by some Muslims as a sign of piety, “defies the values of the equality of men and women that we have here in Quebec.” He also compared the ban to prohibitions against neo-Nazi skinhead symbols in the classroom.

The controversy continued last week. On Friday, the Montreal Gazette reported that Landry had railed at a Latina desk clerk as he checked into a Montreal hotel following the vote count, accusing her and fellow immigrants of tipping the vote against separation. Later Friday, Landry surrendered his job as Cabinet minister in charge of immigration, although he remains deputy premier.

There is disagreement, even among non-separatists, over whether incidents such as these are revelations of true character or aberrations from what is essentially an inclusive, tolerant movement that defines Quebec’s nationhood in territorial rather than ethnic terms.

Walter Tom, the Quebec regional director of the Chinese Canadian National Council, said he thinks ethnocentrism is likely to fade as a new generation takes leadership of the separatists. “It’s the Old Guard that’s the problem,” he said.

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The official position of the separatist parties is that every Quebecker is equal and that citizenship is defined by residence, not heritage. They have pledged to protect the rights of English speakers and other minorities if they ever do achieve independence.

And just as Parizeau was condemned for his referendum-night speech, Bouchard was praised for his.

Louis Balthazar, a political science professor at Laval University in Quebec City, said the real lesson to be drawn from last week’s vote was that the separatists should be doing more to court minority and English-speaking voters. Instead, Parizeau further alienated them.

“There was no misunderstanding,” Balthazar said. “It was very clear and very divisive.”

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Quebec Immigration

Facts about the influx of immigrants into Quebec, from 1990 to 1994.

Number of immigrants admitted to Quebec: 1994: 27,102

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Country of origin Number Percentage Lebanon 23,237 10.9 Hong Kong 12,994 6.1 Haiti 11,966 5.6 France 11,747 5.5 China 10,381 4.9 Vietnam 6,074 2.9 El Salvador 5,945 2.8 Sri Lanka 5,936 2.8 Romania 5,817 2.7 Philippines 5,386 2.5 Other 112,930 53.2 Total 212,413 100

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