Frustrated and powerless: the feelings of young North Africans in Montreal

On a Friday evening in February, a meeting on the coverage of the war in Gaza took place with young people in Saint-Michel. The subject: “How do you feel about the war in Gaza? ”. Among the words that come up the most are the frustration and helplessness that characterized the feelings of the young people present that day.

Today, these young people want to be heard by the government and are calling politicians to account. What bothers them is “their hypocrisy.”

While the current death toll exceeds the impressive 30,000 mark, the tension is at its peak at Collège de Maisonneuve. La Converse went to meet some young people who attend the school in order to better understand their concerns.

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Frustrated and disappointed

Tuesday noon, at Collège de Maisonneuve, is the joint break. It is a time when no one has classes, which allows everyone to come together and have free time in common for various extracurricular activities or simply to have dinner with friends. Walking through the corridors, we see several students walking around, notebooks in hand and Keffiyehs (a Palestinian scarf) over the head or neck.

Nesrine, a junior high school student for a year, is taking advantage of this break to quickly move on toIntermission, one of the multiple premises made available to students. At theIntermission, we chat, we eat, we debate, we review or we are just passing by, like Nesrine.

“I am studying in the middle school's “Justice and Society” program, she starts. I would like to become a psychologist one day to help children who are victims of war trauma, in Palestine, for example.” That's how Nesrine introduces herself at first glance.

The Palestinian cause is close to his heart. “I have been involved for a long time, but especially since October. I go out to demonstrate, I am boycotting pro-Israel companies and I am constantly talking about them on the internet. But other than that, I can't do much,” laments the 19-year-old student.

What Nesrine has been feeling for the past few months is frustration: “We are a country that advocates peace and freedom. It took far too long for our government to ask for a ceasefire,” she said.

“If I go there, I may die within a day,” she said. Uncertain, she keeps asking herself how she could get involved in helping those she considers to be her “own brothers and sisters” in the Middle East.

What also frustrates the Algerian student is, first of all, the notion of representation, which is supposed to be at the heart of the democracy in which she lives. “My parents came here for a better life, a more transparent policy. I am not at all happy to have a government that does not represent the ideas and values of peace,” she exclaims.

Despite this dissatisfaction, she still feels that she is lucky to live in Montreal.

She says that “there are a lot of advantages to being Canadian and Québecois. [We] are extremely free. It is a country that gives a lot of individual rights and freedoms unlike other countries. Basically, it's a mixture of emotions that I feel.”

While Nesrine is mad at politicians, on the other hand, she does not feel betrayed at all by the civil society that surrounds her. “Most ordinary people seem to know about the subject and advocate humanity, just like me. In middle school, everyone is in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. The few professors who talk about it in the courses listen to us and talk to us,” she said with some relief.

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Sad and angry

As Nesrine finishes sharing her experience with us, the door to the office ofIntermission opens abruptly. A young woman, proudly wearing her keffiyeh over her scarf, sits on one of the empty chairs in the room.

“I heard you were talking about the situation in Gaza. I would like to speak as a college student, but also as a Montrealer,” the young woman whispers to us then. She is accompanied by two boys, who are also middle school students and who want to participate in the testimony.

This young girl is called Marwa. With glasses on her nose and a multitude of necklaces around her neck, she is 19 years old and studying human sciences. Unlike Nesrine, who speaks in a very soft voice, she seems angry, her voice is strong, she is tough.

Moreover, she begins her testimony with confidence: “Nothing changed in October for me. I have been aware of the injustices that are happening in Gaza and throughout the Palestinian territory since a very young age, she says. I have always been interested in this subject. I made it the subject of my research and my presentations in elementary and high school,” she explains.

When asked about the situation, Marwa is furious. “Not only does the war sadden and horrify me, but the reaction of our elected officials makes me mad. I don't understand how, despite all the massive demonstrations across the country calling for a ceasefire, it took so long to accept it at the leadership level,” she said.

Marwa wants Montrealers, Quebecers and Canadians in general to break the silence and speak up. “I want people, especially young people, to realize the impact they can have if they leave their comfort zone. For example, last month, I went out with twenty other girls my age to Montreal City Hall to confront an elected municipal official.”

“Last month, I went to the Montreal Agglomeration Council. It is a Council that brings together all the elected officials of the Island of Montreal. I went there to question the mayor of Hampstead, Jeremy Levi, who keeps sharing his support for Israel on all his social networks. I wanted to ask him, face to face, why he is not asking for a ceasefire instead of arguing on social networks and denying the ongoing massacre in Gaza,” she said.

The mayor of Hampstead refused to answer questions from the young Montrealer. This silence adds anger to the young woman's feeling of powerlessness. “It frustrates me even more, it makes me angry. Elected officials are supposed to be accountable to citizens, especially when there are thousands of deaths involved,” Marwa tells us.

La Converse tried to join Jeremy Levi on this issue. He still hasn't answered our questions at the time of writing.

In addition, when asked about the frustration expressed by these students, the office of Quebec's Minister of International Relations, Martine Biron, indicated that, despite the waiting time, “our government passed a unanimous motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel on January 30 last year, in the wake of the UN Security Council resolution of 22 December.” The minister's office also called for “calm and respect, knowing that this conflict is generating a lot of concerns.”

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“We must not forget the history of the college”

Almost ten years after the incidents, young middle school students who left to join the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria, professors are worried. They fear facing a similar situation, especially for students who feel that their perceived frustration and injustice are not being heard enough.

Jean-Félix Chénier has been a professor of politics at the middle school since 2008. Before teaching in Maisonneuve, he practiced his profession at Jean-de-Brébeuf College, located in the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough. An expert in Middle East politics, he has been to Israel and Palestinian territories in the past.

When you go to your office in the social sciences department, you always pass by the same posters on the walls of the corridors calling for a free Palestine.

“You know,” he began walking, “Last session, I was giving an introduction to politics course. The only time during the session when I felt that the students liked my course was when Hamas launched its attack on Israel. I paused my program and did a Crash course on the subject for one session. The students were so interested that we didn't even take a break,” he said.

When entering the professor's office, the first thing that jumps out is the bookcase full of books behind his computer. Among the books that we see first are essays on Jewish and Arab identity.

In his classes, Mr. Chénier highlights the concerns of his students. Many feel outraged. “When the Quebec government refuses to call for a ceasefire, or when it combines “asking for peace in Gaza” with “being sympathetic to Hamas terrorists,” it is certain that those who take the cause at heart feel betrayed,” he said.

What is important to him is the identity character of these young people he speaks to every day. “In an establishment where a large number of students come from the Arab-Muslim world, there is a risk that they will feel abandoned by the society in which they live,” he continues.

“In Maisonneuve, it's not trivial,” he says. “We must not forget the history of the college. In 2015, there was a reason why students flew to Syria to join the Islamic State. All of this was based on a frustration that we didn't take seriously,” he said.

His biggest fear is that students will not channel the anger they have in themselves. “This feeling of injustice could lead them to become politically or religiously radicalized or to become racist against Jews in general, when there are plenty of Jews in Israel or elsewhere who are very critical of the State of Israel and the policies of the State of Israel in general,” he adds.

He believes that a context like this Flirt with the one from nine years ago. “There is a risk of an ideological slippage. I think that the corridor workers here do an amazing job with young people, but after my experience in 2015, I don't deny that there are some contextual similarities.”

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Allow students to express anger

Testimonies such as those of Nesrine and Marwa, “there are plenty”, affirms Jean-Félix Chénier. And while some professors and college employees fear, others, like him, are more optimistic.

“We try to promote positive canalization opportunities for students. We want this anger and this feeling of powerlessness to be translated into the involvement and the voice of the community here. Some are already doing it very well, he believes, smiling, but we want to broaden these options.”

Among these, the policy expert believes that it would be beneficial to offer the opportunity to those who want to speak out, in addition to increasing the accessibility of students to student associations or even encouraging young people to come into contact with their elected officials.

“We want to create a sense of solidarity with the people here. I want young people not to feel isolated in their beliefs.” He even declares: “When François Legault speaks out against a resolution on an immediate ceasefire, I don't feel properly represented either.”

Beyond these opportunities, the teacher recalls that there are also strong ties between the student community and middle school teachers on the issue of human rights in Palestine. “Students must be shown that it is possible to have a nuanced and critical discourse about the government of Israel. The institution of Collège de Maisonneuve, through the student association or the teachers' union, can adopt resolutions that criticize the policies of the State of Israel.”

“That can add some spice to the feeling of injustice that many students here feel,” he concludes on an optimistic note.