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The colour of judges The Quebec government, in one fell swoop, doubled the number of ethnic minorities donning judges' robes in the province this week. The province's first black judge, Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, was appointed to the Quebec bench on Monday--bringing the grand total of visible minorities currently sitting on Quebec benches to two. She will be joining 264 white colleagues. Despite the breakthrough, minority-rights groups remain underwhelmed by the province's record on minority hiring. "There are still many areas where visible minorities are under-represented in Quebec, particularly in the civil service," says Francis Laforesterie of the Centre for Research-Action on race relations. Despite repeated promises from both the PQ and the Quebec Liberals to increase their representation, visible minorities today constitute only about one per cent of all Quebec bureaucrats. A decade ago, Premier Robert Bourrassa pledged to increase their numbers to nine per cent. Says Laforesterie: "We're still waiting for the first annual report on race relations to be published. It was promised 10 years ago." --Patrick Lejtenyi
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