A recent survey suggests that about a quarter of journalists on major newsrooms in English Canada are from diverse backgrounds, roughly in line with the proportion of Canadians who belong to visible minorities. A representativeness that is far from being achieved in Quebec.

At Postmedia, owner among others National Post, nearly 25% of journalists surveyed say they are from an ethnic minority group, a study by the Canadian Association of Journalists released Thursday reveals. According to the same survey, about 30% of CBC News’ editorial staff are from minority groups, 3% more than Canada’s population as a whole.

Impossible to get such an accurate picture of Québec’s media ecosystem: neither the major press groups nor the Professional Association of Quebec Journalists (FPJQ) have conducted this type of survey. Which says a lot about the cultural divide between the two wastelands on this issue, say some observers.

“There’s a lot more diversity at CBC than here. It’s normal, we talk about diversity a lot more and for a lot longer in English Canada,” notes Pierre Tousignant, President of the Radio-Canada Workers’ Union.

However, in the absence of figures, Crown’s francophone management acknowledges that its journalists may not yet be sufficiently reflective of Quebec, where visible minorities are reported to make up around 13% of the population census from 2016. However, we assure you that we spare no effort in recruiting journalists from different backgrounds.

“It is fundamental that the cultural communities recognize themselves in the public service. It brings a better view of the problems. I watch everything that’s happening in the United States, so I’m very aware of the importance of people with diversity also reaching leadership positions,” stressed Radio-Canada’s Director General of Information, Luce Julien, in an interview with Have to.

Luce Julien refutes all multiculturalist bias by staunchly defending this approach. For them, the promotion of diversity of origin does not come at the expense of diversity of opinion, on the contrary. On the other hand, it is not important to have good and appropriate positive discrimination policies or quotas, as Radio-Canada prefers to use “targets”. A discourse similar to that of the School of Media at UQAM.

“We have a very restricted program with a very rigorous French test. We accept between 55 and 70 students per year and reject around 200. We will continue to pursue this strategy, but in the meantime we have various initiatives to attract students from all backgrounds, particularly Aboriginal students, with scholarships,” says Patrick White, Director of the Journalism Program.

However, Patrick White reminds that the representation of cultural communities in the Quebec media cannot be compared to the situation prevailing in English Canada, where language is not an issue.

In addition, the profession of journalist does not have a good press in certain cultures, which makes it even more difficult to recruit young people with a migration background.

“Honestly, it really is hard. It’s not viewed in the same way as engineering or healthcare professions,” adds Jean-Hugues Roy, also a professor at the School of Media.

Between 2010 and 2019, Jean-Hugues Roy analyzed approximately 522,000 articles published in one of Quebec’s three main daily newspapers (The duty, The press and The Journal of Montreal) in an as yet unpublished study. He estimated that just under 3% of the texts were written by a journalist belonging to a visible minority.

The Quebec Observatory of Ethnocultural Diversity (OQDE) went through essentially the same exercise in 2019, but this time for opinion pieces.

While 13% of Quebecers say they belong to a visible minority, half as many columns were found to be signed by a member of diversity.

“The more visible minorities see themselves in the media, the more they feel part of society. And on the other hand, the more the majority group sees visible minorities, the less likely they are to discriminate,” explains Hassan Serraji, Director of OQDE.

To see in the video