Here is what boxing is: You wait for what is to come pretending like you have some kind of idea. Then when the time comes and the flurry is upon, you go back on those heels and throw from your fists. You throw and you throw until you are done, because until the bell sounds the hitting from all directions isn’t done.
Coming to Canada and etching out a new life is a fight. You got the language and cultural things all coming at you in right crosses and all the rest of it. Boom!
There are always those neighbourhoods where the fight to survive and the burn to get yours is brighter. Where the survival instinct wells up pretty nice. You go where the rents are a little high for the crap they are selling at you on the monthly, but the background checks are laxer and they aren’t slamming the door to your face. There is one other constant about all these types of districts - the boxing gym, the place to make good all the things you have been learning about having to stand up for you and yours. And all those rounds you are putting down day after day.
In Toronto, you have your Cabbagetown Boxing Club - in a place where the kids of good Irish stock were set down to live in Corktown and Cabbagetown, because it was close to all that factory and distillery work and the only place that Orange Toronto would keep it so that King Billy wouldn’t take a thrashing to them with their Billy clubs. This was the late 19th century in Cabbagetown and all that Presbyterian Toronto long dresses with no lace was held down like iron by the ruling no-fun brigade. So there was all that before they put up (and now tore down) that monstrosity of a failed housing project called Regent Park. A place where some of the Irish even stayed to fight more than a few rounds. The years went on and some of the families even stayed on - till come the eighties you had the scrapper Shawn O’Sullivan. He was coming out of that Cabbagetown club with the prolific amature title of 94-6. A bloody record matched by very very few Canadian boxers.
The culmination of Shawn’s career was the 1984 Olympics in LA where he grabbed at that siver metal after losing to the American Frank Tate in the finals of the Mens Light Middleweight. O’Sullivan looked to have the gold medal locked up. In the second round O’Sullivan landed some heavy gloves on Tate, taking him to two standing-eight-counts. But the judges unanimously gave the decision to Tate and, incredibly, even awarded the second round to the American. Even the patriotic Los Angeles crowd jeered the decision. But our Cabbagetown boy O’Sullivan was gracious in defeat, calling the outcome “unfortunate.” He did turn pro after this but never, it would seem, reach his full potential - or maybe it was just he never caught his proper breaks.
I saw an interview with old Shawn going back about 5 years on CBC and you could tell, like so many, the blows to the head had taken their toll. He had taken his cuts and lacerations and you could tell that they had a hold on him for life. Probably like a lot of us.
So what of Shawn? In 2007, O’Sullivan’s apartment was busted into, and the thieves made off with all his lifetime: nine rings, including one with four maple leaves and a diamond stud that commemorates his pair of world championships.
He is currently holding it down in of all places, Belleville, Ont. where he can frequently be seen walking his dog (a boxer) and offering a friendly greeting to any who recognize him. I suppose that is the loneliness of the small town and the rewards Shawn had in store for all that courage he took upon himself. The thing about being put in the middle of fights, is you don’t always come out the winner. And you never, that is a surety, come out weightless and without the effects of the thing that came at you.
Immigration it can be a shit-kicker alright. And who knows what all the generations beyond us have in store as they stand to their place with the flurries to come.
For final thoughts on the metaphoricals of the many ways that we all take our turn in the ring when we come to Canada — check the video of our man Dierry Jean. He is a latter-day O’Sullivan coming to the shores of St. Michel in East Montreal and of good Haitian stock, and man is he ready to go back on those heels. They call him the Canadian champ going back to 2006. Weightless one? Well, we will all just have to wait and see about all the beatings he still has to come on down throughout the years….
All of us together as a society have undergone rapid and sweeping changes. Many of them have been for the better. In 1969, the average unilingual Anglophone made twice the income of even a bilingual Francophone. That is only forty years ago. The Quiet Revolution saw an immense and necessary social reordering. By the mid nineties the average income of Anglophones and Francophones was and still is measured as equal. The advent of Bill 101 saw a growing confidence that the public sector and power of the law could be used to protect and promote French.
The public sector and thus the middle class in Quebec are dominated by the French majority. By contrast, the English community is split in two, overrepresented in both the relatively small business class and the relatively larger lower class. In the last thirty years, half a million English Quebeckers have left. We English have shrunk almost by half, from 14% to 8% of the province. This decline has reflected a disproportionately large exodus of the educated, bilingual Anglophone upper and middle. Of those English-speakers who remain, 40% are now visible minorities, and they are disproportionately represented in the growing lower class segment. The English-speaking Black community in particular is amongst the poorest communities in Quebec.
The economic equalization between Anglophones and Francophones in Quebec was reached in part through immense hiring in the public sector and by unionizing and socializing industry, such as Hydro Quebec. This was done to shift the balance of power of the economy and in society – and the numbers would indicate that this has worked. Simultaneously, several French-headed companies rose to prominence, including Bombardier, Caisse Populaire, Quebecor, Banque Nationale, and Bell. This is impressive given that forty years ago the economy was dominated by the English community. Today, the largest employer in Quebec is the provincial government, and it has double the work force of California despite only a quarter the population. It is the largest government workforce of any jurisdiction in North America. Sadly, minorities are underrepresented by a factor of four relative to their share of the population in the Quebec civil service, at just 5% of the total.
This tale of woe extends to the rest of the economy as well. Educated immigrants fare worse in Quebec than any other jurisdiction in North America. The Black and Latino communities suffer unemployment rates roughly twice as high as the White population, and in the jaw-dropping vicinity of 17%. Nowhere else are these problems as severe: Quebec’s minority unemployment rate is the next to highest of all Canadian provinces and U.S. states – even those stained by their Jim Crow history. The Arab community is not faring much better.
How can we say we are giving away too much? This is shameful and indicative of a brewing crisis. But strangely, these facts have managed to escape the public debate, even during the reasonable accommodation hearings. The numbers indicate that Quebec is failing its minority communities by not sharing jobs and power.
I refer not to racism per se, but rather that the nurturing and protection of French cannot come at any cost. Not at the cost of creating a new and growing class of outsiders in the society. Certain checks and balances must exist. In no way does this require an end to Bill 101 – but I challenge Quebec not to use old wounds or even newer and real vulnerabilities (globalization) as an excuse to overlook its failures or to ignore its real responsibilities to all citizens.
I have always felt that the irony is that if the immense power of the government and public sector as a whole was used to reach out to the rest of society, the response would be overwhelmingly positive, with cultural communities better able to adapt to the French fact. Instead, by setting up a fearful and panicked way of protecting the language and the gains of the French community, it may be actually driving others away from entering the fold. It is basic human psychology: people want to be wanted.
During the reasonable accommodation debate, many of the failures of the society towards its immigrant communities were by and large ignored, and instead the discussion dwelled upon unhelpful and divisive issues such as Hijabs, knives in socks, and the frosted windows at the Parc YMCA. Instead, the focus must be more substantive than this. What I am talking about is the need for immediate human rights gains for overlooked Quebecers, mainly within the immigrant communities, yet Quebec currently seems unwilling or unable to have the maturity to face these serious and shameful shortcomings head on.
As I say, French must be protected as the beautiful, vulnerable and distinct force that it is in North America. That is why I am happy to report that the government is going through a great deal of effort to recruit and encourage French immigration into Quebec, and it is working. Sixty percent of all immigrants who arrive here – and in large numbers – speak French as their mother tongue. With no population growth whatsoever amongst the pur laine community, immigration represents the only population increase in Quebec. I suspect that while French remains vulnerable, the future Francophone immigrant majority community will set the tone for what can only be a less fearful, more open, honest, and self-examining French North American society.
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LE QUÉBEC LAISSE TOMBER SES MINORITÉS
Nous tous, en tant que société, avons connu de grands et rapides changements. Nombre de ces changements ont été pour le mieux. En 1969, un anglophone unilingue moyen gagnait le double d’un francophone bilingue. C’était il y a seulement 40 ans. La révolution tranquille a vu naître un nouvel ordre social nécessaire. Dès le milieu des années 90 et jusqu’a aujourd’hui, le revenu moyen des anglophones et francophones était comparable. La venue de la loi 101 a incité à ce que le secteur public et le pouvoir légal s’unissent aux fins de promouvoir et d’encourager le français.
Le secteur public et donc la classe moyenne au Québec est dominée par la majorité francophone. En contrepartie, la communauté anglophone est partagée en deux : une partie fortement représentée dans une petite communauté d’affaires et une classe pauvre relativement plus importante. Durant les 30 dernières années, un demi million de Québécois ont quitté la province. Notre communauté anglophone s’est retrouvée réduite de moitié, passant de 14% à 8% de la population. Ce déclin s’est révélé un exil important de la classe moyenne supérieure bilingue anglophone et éduquée. Des anglophones restants, 40% sont maintenant des minorités visibles et sont surreprésentés au sein de la classe pauvre grandissante. La communauté noire anglophone en particulier est parmi les plus pauvres au Québec.
L’homogénéisation économique entre anglophones et francophones au Québec a été concrétisée en partie grâce à un immense recrutement dans le secteur public et par la syndicalisation et la socialisation de l’industrie, des compagnies telles que Hydro Québec. Cela avait pour but de basculer le pouvoir économique et sociétal et les chiffres laissent à croire que ça a fonctionné. Simultanément, un grand nombre de compagnies dirigées par des francophones sont devenues de plus en plus proéminente, telles que Bombardier, Caisse Populaire, Québecor, Banque Nationale et Bell. Cet exploit est notable quand on sait que 40 ans plus tôt l’économie était dominée par la communauté anglophone. Aujourd’hui, le premier employeur au Québec est le gouvernement provincial. Son nombre de salariés est le double de celui de la Californie alors que sa population représente le quart de cet était états=unien. Le nombre d’employés gouvernementaux au Québec est le plus important de toutes les juridictions en Amérique du Nord. Malheureusement, les minorités sont sous représentées, selon un facteur du un pour quatre, de leur droit de représentativité dans la société civile québécoise. Elles constituent seulement 5% du total des employés du secteur public.
Ce constat dramatique s’étend aussi au reste de l’économie. Les immigrants éduqués sont dans une situation beaucoup plus précaire ici que n’importe quel autre endroit en Amérique du Nord. Les communautés Noires et Latines souffrent d’un taux de chômage au peu près deux fois supérieur à celui de la population blanche, avec un nombre effarant avoisinant les 17%. Aucune autre province ne connaît de problèmes aussi graves : le taux de chômage des minorités est le second le plus important de toute l’Amérique du Nord, surpassant les états ayant vécu la ségrégation instaurée par Jim Crow. La communauté arabe ne s’en sort pas beaucoup mieux.
Comment peut on dire que nous donnons trop ? Cela est honteux et indique qu’une crise se prépare. Mais bizarrement, ces faits ont réussi à échapper au débat public, même durant les audiences sur les accommodements raisonnables. Les chiffres indiquent que les Québecois laissent tomber leurs communautés minoritaires en ne partageant pas les emplois et le pouvoir.
Je ne pense pas que cela soit du racisme à proprement parler, mais plutôt un soin et une énergie déployés à la protection du français au détriment d’autres aspects. Au détriment par exemple, de la création d’une nouvelle et grandissante classe moyenne d’étrangers dans la société. Il doit y avoir un moyen de réconcilier les deux, et ce n’est en aucun cas la remise en question de la loi 101. Mais je mets au défi le Québec de ne pas utiliser de vieilles blessures ou même de nouvelles et réelles vulnérabilités (globalisation) comme excuse afin de ne pas regarder ses échecs et afin d’ignorer ses responsabilités envers tous les citoyens.
J’ai toujours pensé que l’immense pouvoir du gouvernement et du secteur public combinés pouvaient être utilisés pour toucher toute la population et que le retour en serait extrêmement positif, permettant aux communautés culturelles de s’adapter au français. En revanche, en mettant en place un système de protection de la langue et de la communauté francophone basé sur la peur, les autres communautés prendraient leur distance et seraient moins intéressées de s’intégrer. Il s’agit de psychologie humaine de base : les gens veulent se sentir désirés.
Pendant le débat sur les accommodements raisonnables, les nombreux manquements de la société face à ses communautés immigrantes ont été largement ignorés. Les discussions se sont perdues sur des sujets aussi explosifs que non représentatifs et ridicules que les Hijabs, les couteaux dans les chaussettes, et les fenêtres opaques du YMCA de l’avenue Parc. L’attention devait être portée sur des sujets plus critiques. Je parle du besoin urgent d’un rétablissement des droits de l’homme pour tous les Québécois dénigrés, principalement dans les communautés immigrantes ; alors que le Québec semble aujourd’hui incapable ou désintéressé de se confronter à ces problèmes sérieux et semble incapable d’avoir la maturité de regarder ses défauts inavouables de face.
Comme je le disais, la langue française doit être protégée telle la force unique, belle et vulnérable, qu’elle est en Amérique du Nord. C’est pour cela que je suis heureux de témoigner de l’effort que fait le gouvernement pour recruter et encourager avec succès, l’immigration francophone au Québec. 60% des immigrés qui arrivent ici ont pour langue maternelle la langue française. Sans aucune croissance de la population de la communauté « pur laine », l’immigration représente le seul moyen d’augmenter la population au Québec. Il est fort à parier que malgré la vulnérabilité latente du français, la future communauté francophone saura instaurer un nouveau ton, forcément moins craintif, plus introspectif et saura créer une communauté francophone nord américaine plus ouverte et honnête.
