The Gazette
Saturday, July 17, 2004
JEFF HEINRICH

Bias most pronounced against muslims. 22% here expressed negative attitudes toward Jews; 13% did in Ontario

Almost half of Quebec parents would disapprove of their son or daughter marrying a Muslim, a federally commissioned poll suggests.

As well, one-third would frown on marriage to a Pakistani or East Indian, according to the Environics poll done for the Canadian Heritage Department.

About 20 per cent wouldn't want their child to marry a Jew or an aboriginal, either, the poll also indicates.

The figures contrast sharply with those from Ontario, where the only marriage bias stronger than in Quebec is against blacks and, by a very slight margin, Chinese.

The data suggest Quebecers' intolerance of intermarriage is the highest in Canada.

The survey of 2,014 Canadians was done from March 29 to April 18 and was released under embargo to the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

The marriage questions were part of a long list that looked at attitudes toward multiculturalism and ethnic tolerance.

People were asked how comfortable they'd be if their son or daughter married someone from the following ethnic groups:

Muslims: In Quebec, 43 per cent said they'd be "not very" or "not at all" comfortable. In Ontario, the figure was 34 per cent.

Jews: In Quebec, 22 per cent were negative, compared with 13 per cent in Ontario.

Pakistanis/East Indians: In Quebec, 33 per cent aren't comfortable, compared with 26 per cent in Ontario.

Blacks: In Quebec, 16 per cent disapprove vs. 21 per cent in Ontario.

Chinese: In Quebec, 15 per cent say no vs. 16 per cent in Ontario. In British Columbia, the figure is 12 per cent.

Aboriginals: Twenty per cent of Quebecers disapprove, while 16 per cent in Ontario disapprove.

By contrast, Quebecers and Canadians generally are much more comfortable with marriage to someone of Italian descent: they get a 90-per-cent approval rating in both Quebec and Ontario, and even more so elsewhere in the country.

The high discomfort with Muslims and Jews probably reflects secular and feminist Quebecers' suspicion of organized religion, especially its more highly visible forms, one Montreal expert said.

Fo Niemi, director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, said people falsely equate Muslims with Arabs, and with that comes "the stereotype of the mean and sexist and abusive Arab Muslim male and, of course, the association with violence and terrorism."

"There may be also an underlying current that Muslims and Jews tend to cling to and impose their religion in public space" - for example, by wearing the hijab or boarding up balconies on the Sukkot holiday.

"French Quebecers feel they've worked so hard to get religion out of the public space but some groups now want to bring it back," Niemi said.

A separate question in the poll - about hijab use - appears to bear that out.

Asked if they agreed with the policy in France of banning the Islamic headscarf in schools and among government employees, 52 per cent of Quebecers said yes - the highest in the country. The rate was 36 per cent in Ontario.

jheinrich@thegazette.canwest.com

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