New bill will require newcomers to Quebec to adopt ‘common culture,’ minister says

Quebec’s immigration minister says newcomers to the province need to embrace the “common culture” to avoid ghettoization.

The Quebec government will table a new bill on the integration of immigrants on Thursday, which will require newcomers to adhere to Quebec values like gender equality and secularism.

Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge told reporters today that Canada has never defined its own common culture, and the Canadian model of multiculturalism doesn’t work for Quebec.

Roberge says there will be mechanisms in the law to ensure its principles are followed, but offered no details.

He says he wants immigrants to attend Quebec shows, films and celebrations and to mix with people outside their own communities.

Roberge says the bill is in line with his government’s previous Quebec identity-related legislation, including the secularism law and the language reform.

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