Teachers ask for accommodation guidelines

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

After stopping off in 16 cities all over Quebec, the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation made its way to downtown’s Palais des congrès this week, giving Montreal-region residents the opportunity to express their ideas on cultural diversity in the province.

On Monday, the first day of the week-long Montreal stop, representatives from the Syndicat de l‘Enseignement de l’Ouest de Montréal (SEOM) – a union representing Commision scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (CSMB) teachers of western Montreal and the West Island – said teachers need guidelines to appropriately apply reasonable accommodation in their schools.

“We need to realize the situation teachers are in,” said union president Andrée Aubut, adding the numerous cultures in the West Island and the close interaction with the anglophone population constantly change the face of what “living together” means. “There is a heavy responsibility there.”

Aubut said teachers are often the “first line” in integrating immigrants and that they need some sort of guidelines to make sure this is done appropriately.

Nicole Frascadore of the SEOM referred to the high-profile kirpan case that began in 2001, when 12-year-old Ste. Catherine Labouré school student Gurbaj Singh Multani accidentally dropped his kirpan while playing with other students in the playground. As an orthodox Sikh, Singh Multani was wearing the dagger under his clothes as a religious symbol and not as a weapon. The incident and responses to it were covered in the media for nearly five years until the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that completely banning the kirpan from public schools would be a violation of the religious freedom the Charter of Rights guarantees.

Frascadore said the decision has made teachers uneasy about the reasonable accommodation issue, because they receive so many different requests with numerous cultural and religious implications, and do not know what to do.

The union asked the commission co-chairs, Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, to consider guidelines that would instruct teachers on how to proceed. There should also be an annual report showing all of the different demands that were made, in order to keep the guidelines up to date. The SEOM also said the structure of the welcoming classes for newcomers need to be improved in order to make integration easier for both immigrants and the teachers, and also underlined the importance giving personnel sufficient training– especially teachers – in different cultures and religions so they can understand and teach them better.

“The demands can vary. We need to know, what can we accept, what can’t we,” Aubut said.

“We need to be able to accommodate, but there has to be a balance,” Frascadore added.

The Bouchard-Taylor Commission public hearings will wrap up this Friday. There will also be a ‘regional citizens forum’ tomorrow from 7:30 to 9:45 p.m. at the Palais des Congrès. For more information, visit www.accommodements.qc.ca or call 514-873-9420.