Montreal–Two years after Quebecers began a public reflection on the accommodation of religious minorities and immigrants, attitudes among francophones have remained largely unchanged and may have even hardened.
A survey in November and a larger one last May both show francophone Quebecers are more inclined to feel that immigrants must give up their customs and become more like the majority.
In the May survey, 58 per cent of francophones surveyed felt this way – a number virtually unchanged since 2007 – compared with 32 per cent of non-francophones surveyed.
The November poll produced similar results on the question. Both surveys were conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies.
The May survey also shows opinions on whether Quebec society is threatened by the influx of non-Christian immigrants may have hardened.
Whereas 32 per cent of francophones agreed in 2007, that number was 40 per cent in 2009.
In 2007, Quebec was embroiled in a debate over the reasonable accommodation of religious minorities in a supposedly secular, pluralist society. Two years on, after the Bouchard-Taylor commission was supposed to offer solutions, attitudes are not softening. The poll shows francophone Quebecers are "more assimilationist" than non-francophones, said association executive director Jack Jedwab.
The May survey of 1,003 Quebecers had a 3.9 percentage point margin of error 19 times out of 20.
Meanwhile, an Angus Reid poll in October showed the vast majority of Quebecers thought there was too much accommodation of religious minorities, and that, for instance, prayer rooms shouldn't be allowed in schools or workplaces.
The province's opposition parties, including the separatist Parti Québécois, are fuelling the debate, calling for legislation to ensure the secular nature of the state, and to place gender equality above other rights in Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.