The prime minister Legault announced on Monday the establishment of an “action group to combat racism,” which will be co-led by two ministers.
Nadine Girault (international Relations), and Lionel Carmant (delegated to Health and social Services) will chair this working group. Both have haitian roots. Sylvie D’amours, manager of aboriginal Affairs, will also be on this committee, four members caquistes.
“If there is a folder on which we must work together, it is the fight against racism,” said Mr. Legault in a press conference in Montreal. No member of the opposition will be part of this working group, but Mr. Legault has promised that the other parties would be consulted.
Similarly, no aboriginal representative is not a member of the group here,-above, Mr. Legault argued that there is no member indigenous to the national Assembly. “But we have a police officer who has worked with them,” he said, speaking of Denis Lamothe, member of parliament for Ungava, which patrolled several years in this region.
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The group’s mandate will be “to arrive quickly with recommended actions, starting in the fall, so that we can quickly take actions effective,” according to the prime minister. The key word, he said, is ” action “.
Several sectors will be affected : public safety, justice, education, employment…
Systemic ?
Mr. Legault reiterated Monday that he doesn’t see systemic racism in Quebec, but that there are ” two consensus : the vast majority of Quebecers are not racist and there are racist people. “
The minister Girault, for its part, said that “acknowledging the problem is part of the solution” — but it was a reference to the problem of racism, not systemic racism. “We have a rendezvous with history “, she thinks the mandate of this action group.
Asked to name a problem which, from the outset, will deserve the attention of the group, Lionel Carmant spoke of racial profiling, and François Legault of ” employment, because it did not make sense the unemployment rate among visible minorities in the private or the public “.
.Other details will follow.