(en) Canada, Emma Goldman* invite to endorse: Joint Declaration for an inclusive and anti-racist community in Saguenay (fr)

Show your support and support to the joint statement via email ucl.saguenay @ 
causecommune.net address (include your name, city and title). The author would like to 
clarify that are supporting this statement in no way constitute an endorsement of the 
Collectif Emma Goldman, ideas and activities. You have until September 18 to send us this 
support. ---- Horror and astonishment are not enough words to express our disgust at the 
heinous crime committed on Saturday afternoon at the site of the Mosque of Chicoutimi. We 
who are campaigning daily to break down these boundaries formed prejudice, violence, 
oppression, privilege and ignorance, we are saddened by this news - event of a system of 
oppression - racism - although this home.
 
As we see in this act the continuity of a hate campaign by a small group of racist region, 
we also insurgeons against forms of racism much more widespread and commonplace in our 
midst. In the shadow of stupid ideas - marketing " friendly city " ( no action ) and vain 
quests police journalism of our mainstream media, we are issuing this statement to share: 
courage born of hope, the hope of overcoming and defeat all forms of oppression. It is a 
call to action.
 
A single act ?
 
With the first concern not to tarnish the image of the city, and even Quebec, we already 
widely understood that the hate crime that occurred late last week was an isolated act. 
Other commentators, such as Richard Martineau, prefer in these circumstances, be defenders 
of Quebec against the accusations of racist province from dubious statistics on hate 
crimes. From our perspective, racism is a system of oppression and international 
operations. The mechanisms of this system are designed to assign a social place in a 
group, on the basis of criteria essentializing, so to build sub- population groups ( 
groups of "race" ), positioned in a hierarchical relationship [1 ]. In Quebec, we can 
speak of a social construction that is based on white and francophone majority "dominant" 
versus " minorities" ethnocultural (especially those associated with the Third World ) and 
indigenous communities " dominated ".
 
The Saguenay- Lac-Saint- Jean is often presented as a welcoming area. It is essential to 
note that the prejudice to First Nations remain entrenched in the population and continue 
to be conveyed in the media. Much better in his relentless crusade for the imposition of a 
prayer to god evoking City Hall, Mayor Jean Tremblay stated last year : "What shocks me is 
to see that we, the Canadian soft - french, we will be told how to behave [... ] by a 
person who comes from Algeria and we are not even able to pronounce his name. " These 
prejudices cultivate feelings of difference, mistrust and trivialize racism on a daily 
basis. They also feed on other bad images such as, for example, that the Arabs are willing 
violent, that indigenous people are lazy and people with other ethnocultural affiliations 
are not trustworthy. Recurring debate on the Charter of " Quebec values ??" in the news 
are strong representatives of the resistance to operate transformations in our inclusive 
practices. And this is not unlike how the famous reasonable accommodation crisis, which 
led to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission in 2007, became a hot topic raises many concerns 
about the survival of the Quebec identity.
 
Present throughout society, racism has no age and takes many forms ( verbal, emotional, 
physical, economic, etc.).. In fall 2010, a child nearly 50 years shot with a hunting 
rifle on the two women left the bar at the NRJ Chicoutimi after being out and about for 
their racist couple. In short, September 25, the couple went to an African evening when he 
was not invited and threw racist insults those present and made ??a ruckus in the bar. The 
couple was then expelled and the husband promised revenge.
 
Who has not heard of individuals, relatives, neighbors or colleagues who defend ( in jest 
or not, the effect is the same ) the exclusion of those deemed non- Quebec public life and 
civil rights and sometimes even their expulsion from the national territory? Who has not 
heard the racist rhetoric suggesting that visible minorities are " fit " does not have no 
place in Quebec?
 
A small group racist hate
 
Beyond these forms of racism everywhere in our society and that we do not pay enough 
attention, it is highly worrying that there are people, including a cell of the 
organization of the Quebec Federation of strain who spread hateful ideas close to Nazism 
and fascism in some areas of the region. The central idea disseminated by these people is 
this: the certainty that their nation or "race" is naturally superior to others. In this 
sense, they advocate racial "purification" that can carry up to defend the expulsion and 
elimination of people associated with different cultural groups of them. They accuse 
people who do not belong to the white majority and French to be responsible for a 
situation of "degradation" of Quebec culture. Of course, claim that there is a "Qu?bec 
culture" is the construction of a myth thus excluding the contributions of many people who 
want to differentiate these individuals.
 
In the region, an identifiable small group released thousands of hate propaganda leaflets 
in mailboxes and activists were responsible for numerous acts of intimidation and death 
threats in Chicoutimi in 2011. This is the Federation of Quebec strain which boasts these 
actions. Under a canopy of protection of national identity, the members of this small 
group forge links with the radical fringe of the far right that Quebec joins easily with 
neo -Nazi symbols and Hitler's salvation. We can only condemn the complacency and lack of 
professionalism with which the local media provided a forum for this small group in recent 
years. In December 2012, it has enjoyed an exceptional forum : three-color pages, 
including the cover, newspaper Le Point du Lac St- Jean and The Awakening - free coverage 
( event-free ) with the sole and undisputed point view the speech of an individual ( 
anonymous ) group, all illustrated with his "achievements." Finally, this group also has 
to his credit the course of a xenophobic banner on the roof of the Hotel Chicoutimi during 
the Festival of Rhythms of the World 2012 and piracy with hate messages from the web site 
of the organization of the Open lake is probably no stranger to him. It would be a mistake 
to trivialize or minimize such actions. We must realize that they are another source of 
insecurity, and potentially social exclusion for indigenous people of immigrant and 
racialized other individuals. We must denounce the existence of this group and defeat its 
activities.
 
to conclude
 
It is undeniable that racism is present in the Saguenay -Lac -Saint- Jean and Mayor Jean 
Tremblay is wrong to suggest that this was an isolated act "must not come from a group, 
but probably more than one person the deranged "[2]. No, we say it 's stupid and 
unnecessary medicalization racists. This system of oppression covers various forms and is 
sometimes expressed in a diffuse way, but it still wreaks havoc in the lives of people who 
are victims. Oppression and privilege is rooted in the standards - es, culture, laws and 
institutions of our society. This allows the privileged social groups to use their "power 
over " ( relationship of domination ) to strengthen their position of dominance, and 
consequently the hierarchy of differences. Engage in the fight against racism is to first 
recognize its existence and take concrete actions to denounce the daily racist behavior 
and words that we see. Of course, this fight can be useless if we refuse to address small 
groups of propagandists racial hatred. We know so little Muslim and indigenous communities 
in our region, it would be time to create opportunities for open dialogue in order to 
understand and break down all prejudices.
 
Courage comes hope, hope to win and defeat all forms of oppression.
 
Collectif Emma Goldman
 
[1] Christine Delphy, 2008. " Sort, who dominate the " other " ? "P. 197.
[2] The Daily, September 3, 2013, p. 3.
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* Anarchist collective