GATINEAU'S CODE OF VALUES FOR IMMIGRANTS: IMMIGRANTS SHOULD FILE CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINTS

Montreal, December 23, 2011 --- Residents of the City of Gatineau, who are immigrants or permanent residents and who feel singled out and discriminated by the City's recently adopted Code of Values (“Énoncé de valeurs“) are encouraged to contact CRARR with the view to launch civil rights complaints.

Several sections of the Code may run counter to the provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, especially where the equal protection and equal benefit of the law is concerned, because they reinforce stereotypes against all newcomers.

“The Code leaves out many progressive values and policies which are fundamental to our society, such as a clean environment, LBGT equality, the place of First Nations peoples and labor and workers' rights, as if these are not important for Gatineau,” notes CRARR's Executive Director Fo Niemi.

To read the Code (in French only):