14619: Bellegarde-Smith: Montreal's Haitians - the largest visible minority (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>


Haitians largest visible minority
But you'd never guess it by watching television, 21-year-old rapper says

JANE DAVENPORT
THE (Montreal) GAZETTE

Wednesday, January 22, 2003


As a Canadian of Haitian descent, Samuel Stiverne belongs to the largest
visible minority group in Montreal - but you wouldn't know it to turn on the
radio or TV, he said yesterday.

"I don't feel like watching, because I don't see myself," said Stiverne. "I
think that's why we tend to group together."

An up-and-coming solo rap artist who is working on starting up his own label
at 21, Stiverne's alias in the music industry is Sampol. Most of his friends
are Canadian-born, children of Haitian immigrants who arrived in the 1970s.

But even as his generation reaches young adulthood, Montreal's Haitian
community continues to swell with new arrivals from the troubled country.

Haiti was the top country of birth of immigrants to Montreal in the 1990s,
with 14,200 new arrivals here in that decade, according to 2001 census data.

With a Haitian community 70,000 strong, Haitian origin was the city's eighth
most common ethnic origin in 2001, making the community Montreal's largest
visible minority group.

First-generation immigrants have done much to pave the way for their
Canadian-born children and for new arrivals to the city, Stiverne said.
"Haitians are a proud people - they expect a lot from their children. There's
a certain weight on our shoulders."

The community has built up such resources as churches, community centres and
a sense of solidarity, which all help to welcome newcomers, he said.

But the transition isn't always smooth, as stories such as the Haitian gang
wars in north-end Montreal may attest.

The difficulties facing Haitian youth point to problems within the existing
structure that Stiverne said he hopes future generations can address.

His personal goal is to make the music industry in Quebec more accessible to
blacks by starting his own label and providing a space for rap and hip-hop
artists, Stiverne explained.

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