The Reasonable Accommodations Crisis in Quebec: Racializing Rhetorical Devices in Media and Social Discourse

The author summarizes the major findings from a research report written for Quebec's Bouchard-Taylor Commission on how the media handled the issue of "reasonable accommodation" and their opinions on this issue. Examining 1,105 articles, columns, and letters that were published in five major Quebec daily newspapers between March 1, 2006 and April 30, 2007, including Montreal's English-language The Gazette, the author focussed on two types of social discourse: event-based handling by the media and the opinions expressed by editorialists, columnists, intellectuals, and readers in Quebec's print media. Her analysis revealed devices used in the media and incidents of media exaggeration, as well as populist and racializing rhetorical devices in many journalists' and readers' opinions. She concludes that this social discourse on the reasonable accommodations crisis sheds light on ethnic relations, on how various groups in Quebec perceive one another, and on the sensitivity associated with Francophones' ascension of majority status.

International Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue internationale d'études canadiennes

Vol. 50

137-161

2014

en