Front Burner - Quebec begins controversial 'values' test for newcomers

Episode Date: January 2, 2020

Quebec Premier François Legault came to power saying he would protect the province's cultural identity by reducing its intake of immigrants. On Jan. 1, Legault fulfils part of his controversial plan — the implementation of a "values" test some potential immigrants will have to complete. Today, we talk with CBC reporter Ben Shingler about the policy, how it will likely play out, and the message it sends.

This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Marianne Wernicke, sitting in for Jamie Poisson, who's taking a much-deserved vacation day today. Well, we have started a brand new year. And that also means the start of a brand new and controversial process for some immigrants who want to come to this country. Starting this month, many new immigrants to Quebec will have to take what's been dubbed a values test.

And the idea of it has Canadians divided. Some call the test dangerous politics, a controversial strategy that could further inflame a divided province. Others say the test is a positive step in helping Quebec put a greater focus on secularism. Today, we're taking a closer look at that test and what it could mean for Quebecers and the rest of the country. Ben Chingler, who's a web reporter with CBC News in Montreal, is here with us to go through it all. This is FrontBurner. Ben, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me. Immigrants who want to move to Quebec will have to pass a new Quebec values test as of January 1st. So let's get right into it. I mean, what exactly is this values test we've been hearing about and how does it work? Right. So it's basically a questionnaire. It's 20 questions and it's multiple choice. So it's a little like maybe if you took an exam at some point with multiple choice, it's exactly that. And you need to get 75% to pass. The government has actually released some sample questions from this test. Can you give us

some examples? Right. They did. And when they announced them, they released about five of them. And one of them, for instance, is, in Quebec, women and men have the same rights. And this is inscribed in law. True or false? And live in Quebec to know that, for example, women are equal to men.

Or choose one or more drawings that indicate who is allowed to marry in Quebec. And so you have a document with illustrations of two men, two women, and one man. Two women, a man and a woman, and two men and one woman. So, and another one, for instance, is what is the official language of Quebec? French, Spanish, English, French and English. So not necessarily the hardest questionnaire. And that was one of the criticisms of it when it was announced. Yeah. So basic questions, true, false, some multiple choice.

And who's going to have to write it? So anyone who needs a Quebec selection certificate. So that's people that are trying to settle here, that's the first step required in Quebec to get toward permanent residency. So you can either, in this case, you can take it from your home country when you're trying to get there to Quebec,

or in other cases, when you're sort of on the path to that, but you're in Quebec already. And like I said, you can take it from home on your computer online. So it kind of amounts to an open book exam. Yeah, exactly. And that was another one of the criticisms of it was that it's really just something you can, you'll be able to check and cross check as you're doing the exam. And you'll have three tries at it. The first time you're doing this exam, you have to get 75%. If you don't, maybe you'll have to do this course. It depends on sort of where you are in the process of applying for a Quebec selection certificate,

but you do have three shots at it. So the chances of you not being able to pass this test in those three is pretty slim. So in terms of consequences, if you fail? You have to go back to the beginning of the process. It's not like you'll never be able to do it again, but it's not like you'll never be able to come to Quebec, but you have to go back and start the process again and reapply for a selection certificate.

start the process again and reapply for a selection certificate. And as you've kind of been mentioning as we've been going through this, there have been a lot of opponents to this. There's been a lot of controversy around it. But the argument from the provincial government is that this test is going to benefit Quebec society. Can you tell us more about their reasoning behind that? Yeah. So the real, the line from the premier is that this will ensure that anyone coming here understands Quebec values, understands that there's an equality between men and women, and understands that there is a secularism in Quebec. And so it plays off of this bigger idea that what this government's been trying to do, which is really push forward this protection of Quebec identity,

the French language, equality between men and women. And so it does play to the base of the government, which really did want to see some of these anxieties satisfied. All those accessories symbolize the submission of the woman. That's not acceptable for us. And then you're hearing from the other side, people who are saying that this policy could actually be harmful. What are those opponents saying?

Well, so the test itself, because like we talked about, it's really not that difficult to pass, but it does have this kind of, it signals that people that are coming here don't understand these values. playing off of some of these stereotypes and not really helping in any real way to address actual problems facing immigrants, whether it be actually integrating into Quebec society, learning French, how to get a good job quickly, all those things from the perspective of people working on the front lines with immigrants. Those are the real issues that need to be addressed. That's so interesting. And I want to talk about where this all came from,

because you talked a little bit about the context. This was actually a campaign promise from the Coalition Avenir Quebec. What did this values test look like originally when they rolled it out? Yeah, so it's something that the premier, now premier, has been talking about for a long time, dating back to when he was in opposition. And he has promised to introduce this for years. And at one point in 2016, he was saying that the Burkini would be banned under this values test.

So at the time when it was first being introduced, it was very sort of all-encompassing, At the time when it was first being introduced, it was very sort of all-encompassing, making sure that Quebec values would be protected against any of these kind of religious groups that are coming here. So in the campaign, it again played out. And during the campaign, the big promise was that it would be part of the requirement to obtain permanent residency. And the big question there was, does Quebec have jurisdiction to do this? Can they say, no, you can't stay in Quebec if you don't fill out this form? Right, there were a lot of questions about their promise

that they would actually expel immigrants. Their original proposal being that they would give them four years after they arrived in the province, and then if they didn't pass, they would actually try to kick them out of the country. It makes us all worried that we are not protected. If any government can come and strike down items from the Quebec Charter and put on hold the Canadian Charter, then what protections do we really have? Yeah, that came up a lot in the election campaign and during the debates, because it was something that didn't really make sense

that you could, as a province, decide who gets to stay and who gets to, who doesn't. So that was something that actually, in the end, isn't in the plan that was put forward that's going to be in effect January 1st, because Quebec doesn't have jurisdiction over the permanent residency process. It only has this Quebec Selection Certificate that's at the beginning of the process. And this was just one of the controversial policy promises from the CAQ. I mean, we talked a lot on this show about Bill 21, which would restrict some public service workers from wearing religious symbols on the job.

Many think that law discriminates against Muslim women in particular. I tell you that this situation is really awful for a lot of women right now. Women who wear the hijab, like me, are being harassed in the street. They are facing negative commands. And there are a lot of opponents to it. And it's currently facing several legal challenges right now. Do you think this values test from what you've seen from what you've read, the people you've spoken with, do you think it will face similar legal challenges? I don't think so. I don't think it really has the same. First of all, it was it was part of it was not a law in the same way that Bill 21 is. It was adopted in the official gazette in

Quebec. It's going into effect January 1st. And like we talked about, it's really more of a kind of a signal that that this government's committed to these values. But the actual impact is not as far-reaching as Bill 21, which is having real effects on people who wear religious symbols, who want jobs in the public sector. So I don't think it's going to have the same kind of long, stretched-out legal fight, for sure, because Bill 21 is something that's going to be debated for years to come.

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And how have they been received? So the big one during the election campaign was that he said that he would cut immigration levels by 20%. So before he took office, the year before he took office, Quebec had 50,000 immigrants. In its first year, they cut that to 40,000. So that's a big drop in immigration. So that was a big one. And this all came in the context of Quebec. Quebec's economy is doing really well, and there's a big labor shortage in Quebec. So cutting the number of immigrants by that amount has been controversial. Just from a practical standpoint. Business groups are really concerned

about the labor shortage and they need more workers. So that's been an issue that continues to be controversial here. Do you think that pushback is going to have an impact on these policies? Well, you can see that they're wrestling with how to even meet the quota. They did promise this 20% cut, and now they're moving slowly back up. So this year that's coming to an end now, they're moving up a bit, but it's still not even close to the 50,000 that were coming here in the year before they took office. And so you can see they're kind of grappling with how to even satisfy these cuts because they have control. Quebec only has control over economic immigrants. They don't have the same control over the refugee and the family reunification class, which is federal

jurisdiction. It is their rules on who they grant that certificate to. It's different from permanent residency, it's different from citizenship. It is a process that is entirely Quebec jurisdiction. So what's been happening is they've been trying to cut back on immigrants, but actually the areas that they're cutting are the ones where, you know, you're more likely to see someone go right into the job market if you're coming as an economic immigrant. So it's been really something that the government has struggled with.

I also want to talk about how the federal election plays into all of this, because Bill 21 ended up being kind of a non-issue during the campaign run-up. I'm not going to get into hypotheticals on this one. That's a Quebec responsibility. And now the Bloc holds a lot of power in Parliament. Liberals can't really afford to pick a fight with them. How do you think that that situation is going to impact things like the values test and Bill 21 going forward? I think that's going to be hard to, we'll have to see, because for now we're still in the process of, we haven't even had the challenge heard on its merits in court.

So we just had a suspension, the request for an injunction of Bill 21 rejected. So that could be appealed, but we don't know if that will be appealed. But we don't know if that will be appealed. And then once it does get to be heard on its merits, that's where there's going to be a question of whether the federal government will intervene, whether Manitoba, which is also said the premier has been very outspoken, critical of it, will he have his government intervene in that case? So it's going to be something that's going to be very difficult for the federal government to navigate in the year to come. And at the same time, the controversy isn't going anywhere. These policies in Quebec are going forward. Do you think this is the end, though, of these kinds of policies?

Is the values test the last step here, or are you expecting more? Well, I think the big thing for the government still is following through on its immigration policies because they did, like I said, have this cut to 40,000. low and then bring them back up in a way that they've promised to do and increase the number of people who stay here, the retention of immigrants, because there's a problem with people moving to other provinces, and they also want to ensure that more people learn French. So it's going to be a challenge for them. And the other thing is that they had this big controversy with the student program. This was fast program that fast-tracked students to permanent residency and that they they they limited the number of degrees that were eligible by I can't remember the number but a lot and what happened was all these students said

wait we were on this track we came here specifically because we wanted to make a life here, get a job here, and now we can't. So there was so much controversy over that that Quebec government actually did end up backing away from that reform. But they have promised to do something in the new year that looks somewhat different. We'll have to see exactly what that is. But they're going to have a lot of pressure on them to satisfy this new kind of plan, but at the same time not

limit the number of highly skilled immigrants coming here when there is a labor shortage. Yeah, it sounds like there's this tension between their need for skilled workers during this labor shortage and their hardline stance on immigration. It'd be really interesting to see how it all plays out. Ben, thank you so much for this. Thanks for having me. There's definitely a lot going on here. From critics who say that the values test adds to an us-versus-them narrative around immigrants that could be harmful in a province already struggling with racism and Islamophobia. All the way to businesses who don't want to alienate skilled workers that they need during a labour shortage, to a political party new in power and eager to make good on their election promises. This values test is going ahead, though, starting right now.

So we're just going to have to keep watching and see how all these issues play out. And we do have one more update, though, on a part of this story that we've been talking about a lot. Bill 21. Civil rights groups have just announced their intention to take their fight against that bill to the Supreme Court. We'll keep you posted on how that develops as well. That's the show for today. I'm Marianne Warnicke, sitting in for Jamie Poisson, who we expect back from vacation tomorrow. Thanks for listening.