Getting to know all about you

BY MARC LALONDE

The Chronicle

A handful of West Islanders and Montrealers toured cultural-community institutions to get a better idea of what they are all about and to bring down the walls that have been built between Quebecers of different ethnicities organized by a government agency whose aim is to foster integration of immigrants into society.

The tour, organized by the Centre d’Intégration Multi-Ressources de l’Ouest de l’Ile (CIMOI), based in Pointe Claire, saw tour-goers in for a day of cultural discussion, information, and information designed to bring down some of the fences built between cultures in the province.

“We’re trying to break some of the clichés that exist between ethnic communities and the general public. Sometimes people are afraid to take the first step to get to know another community,� said CIMOI liaison officer Philippe Chevalier. “We are helping them take that step,� he said in the lobby of the Mandir Hindu Temple in Dollard des Ormeaux.

The tour was part of an all-day introduction to ethnic cultures conducted by CIMOI that included an intercultural lunch followed by discussion, a guided tour of the Centre Islamique Al-Jamieh on Anselme-Lavigne Boulevard, followed by another discussion and idea exchange.

Pierrefonds resident Geeta Soni was on hand to give tour-goers an idea of how she is learning to fit in as a newcomer to Quebec. Soni, who moved to Canada from India in 1988, moved here from Toronto after her husband took an engineering post with Bombardier.

“My first concern is learning French,� she said. Soni is taking French courses with CIMOI in order to find a job — she worked as a microfilm technician for 12 years in Toronto — and her French, while improving, is not yet where she wants it to be.

“That’s the major barrier for me right now,� she said. If French is a barrier now, just wait; the couple has purchased a home in Vaudreuil-Dorion and will soon be moving off-island, where getting along in English is slightly tougher than in the West Island. Give her time, though. The Punjab state native speaks or reads four languages already: English, Hindi, Punjabi and Sanskrit.

“When you learn a new language, you are in kindergarten again, and the further I got in French, the more I liked it. I listen to the radio in French, I watch television in French. My conversational French is improving. Sometimes, when I’m reading notes or letters, it’s not so hard, but when I’m in a conversation, it’s a bit harder sometimes,� she said.

Soni gave a presentation about the Hindu community and the group marvelled at the beauty of the Mandir Temple as prayer bells sounded intermittently around them.

“I’m very interested in cultural communities,� said retired schoolteacher Dorothée Morin. “I had a certain amount of knowledge about hem when I was a teacher in Dollard des Ormeaux because I worked with students of different ethnicities, and now, I’m interested in helping take down some of the differences between cultures.�

She said cultural communities are often misunderstood in Quebec and vice versa.

“It’s not racism. It’s misunderstanding one another. We have to focus on what we have in common, and not what divides us. We’re all human beings, and people are people,� Morin said.

For more information on CIMOI’s

services, call 514-685-3000.