March 10, 2008: Poll shows attitudes toward Jews are distinct in Quebec

By Michael Regenstreif

I’ve just seen some recent national polling results on attitudes toward Jews that are encouraging for most of Canada but distinctly dismaying when it comes to Quebec, the province I spent most of my life in.

The poll was commissioned by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies and was conducted by the Quebec firm Léger Marketing in late-January and early-February. Léger surveyed 1,500 people across the country, including 500 in Quebec. The margin of error was plus/minus 3.5 per cent 19 times out of 20.

Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement, “Jews want to impose their customs and traditions on others.”

In Quebec, 41 per cent of those surveyed agreed with statement while an equal number disagreed. As many Quebecers as not, in 2008, seem to think that Jews want to impose their customs and traditions on the rest of the population.

That rather depressing poll result in Quebec does not apply to the rest of the country where only 11 per cent of respondents – a comparatively insignificant number, probably less than those who think that Elvis is still alive – agreed with the statement. The overwhelming majority outside of Quebec, 74 per cent, do not think Jews want to impose our customs and traditions on everyone else.

While there may have been a negative premise built into that first statement, there certainly wasn’t in the next statement, “Jews want to participate fully in society.”

Only 31 per cent of Quebecers surveyed agreed that Jews aspire to full participation in society. Significantly more Quebecers, 41 per cent, think that Jews do not want to be full participants in the wider society.

Again, the dismaying results in Quebec do not apply to the rest of Canada where another overwhelming majority, 74 per cent, think that Jews do want to participate fully and only 10 per cent of those surveyed think they don’t.

“Jews have made an important contribution to society,” was a third statement that respondents were asked to agree or disagree with.

In Quebec, only 41 per cent agreed with the statement, while 74 per cent agreed in the rest of Canada.

When it comes to attitudes toward Jews, Quebec is, indeed, a distinct society.

Although the survey focussed specifically on attitudes toward Jews, I’d be willing to bet that substituting most other minorities would have netted similar results.

The poll was conducted in the wake of the so-called reasonable accommodation hearings that dominated the news in Quebec for much of last year. Commissioners Gérard Bouchard, an historian and brother of former Parti Québécois premier Lucien Bouchard, and Charles Taylor, a philosopher long associated with McGill University, travelled the province listening to people in regions where there are few, if any, Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs, rant about Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.

The hearings exposed the fact that a significant portion of the Quebec population remains overtly hostile to minorities; a portion of the population that too many Quebec politicians seem all too willing to pander to.

Despite the fact that the survey results are much more encouraging for the rest of Canada than they were for Quebec, we mustn’t feel complacent about the results. While problems of prejudice may be less exaggerated in the English-speaking provinces, they do exist and do need to be constantly addressed.

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I would like to take this opportunity to offer my great appreciation and deep admiration to Barry Fishman, who is now the editor emeritus of the Bulletin.

When I joined the Bulletin last summer as assistant editor, I came in with many years of experience working in the mainstream, alternative and Jewish media, primarily in Montreal. But although I’d visited Ottawa many times, and liked the city very much, I’d never lived here.

From Barry, I’ve learned much about Ottawa, about the Jewish community here, and about the workings of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and the important role it plays in the community.

All the while, I’ve watched Barry face his illness with uncommon courage and dignity. I look forward to his friendship and to his continued guidance in the affairs of the Bulletin.

I would also like to say that the thoughts of all of us at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin are with Bulletin contributor Nicola Hamer and her family as she faces her battle back to good health.