The CAQ values test does not go far enough for the taste of Éric Duhaime’s conservatives, who are proposing a law to subject immigrants to a psychometric assessment to ensure that they respect the secularism of the state, women and homosexuals.
This is one of the dimensions of immigration policy that a PCQ government would adopt, according to the list of proposals that will be debated at the party’s national congress on November 18 and 19, a copy of which has been obtained by the QMI agency.
“Admitted immigrants must adhere to a minimum of common values, such as gender equality, the secularism of the state and respect for the rights of gays and lesbians,” the document states.
Specifically, the aim is to review the test introduced by the Legault government in 2019 to ensure its validity and effectiveness, explains the president of the PCQ political committee, Karim Elayoubi.
“Are they going far enough? The validity of the test should be checked. But for us it is certain: if we get people to sign a document, it must be valid, the test, psychometrically speaking,” he says in an interview.
Like medical shots
As a professional doctor, Mr. Elayoubi spontaneously compares the exam that immigrants would have to take under a conservative government to an exam that students must pass to be admitted to medical school.
“These are quite complex tests that can be used to determine whether we are people who have a minimum level of empathy,” he explains. “For immigrants, I imagine psychometricians will be able to perfect a test to subtly determine whether there are, in fact, values incompatibility issues.”
Then, when asked whether a Conservative government would really commission psychometricians to develop a test to prevent the admission of immigrants who do not adhere to Quebec’s “fundamental” values, Dr. Elayoubi: “Yes, exactly.”
The advantage of such a measure is to avoid discrimination on ethnic grounds, he also argued, arguing that a person from “country X” may well share Quebec values, while an American may not share them.
French-speaking immigration
And while they accuse the CAQ of making political capital “on the backs of minorities,” the immigration policy set out by the Conservatives in this document is consistent in almost every way with the CAQ government’s orientations.
On the one hand, they propose setting immigration thresholds “based on Quebec’s economic needs and our ability to integrate” and focusing on immigration “predominantly French-speaking with increased and accessible francization services for all immigrants.”
Autonomous… like in the West
During the convention, the Conservatives also intend to position themselves for legislation to protect provincial powers from federal centralization efforts such as the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
This idea has been the subject of internal discussions for about a year, but chef Éric Duhaime had already made it clear that he viewed it positively. Following the passage of the Alberta Sovereignty Act in the United Canada last fall, he spoke with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
By claiming the “autonomist” label, the Conservatives hope to clarify their position on the national question and better differentiate themselves from the CAQ’s nationalist approach, which they say has not been sufficiently successful.