Time to ‘Change the Mentality’ on Thin Models, Says Quebec Minister

As Montreal Fashion Week kicked off this week, the provincial minister responsible for the status of women in Quebec announced a plan that would call for an end to super-thin models.
Time to ‘Change the Mentality’ on Thin Models, Says Quebec Minister
Quebec provincial minister Christine St. Pierre said she wants to make sure models are in good health and she hopes her proposed charter would help stem anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder, in young women. Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
Joan Delaney
Joan Delaney
Senior Editor, Canadian Edition
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<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/models83275399b.jpg" alt="Quebec provincial minister Christine St. Pierre said she wants to make sure models are in good health and she hopes her proposed charter would help stem anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder, in young women. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Quebec provincial minister Christine St. Pierre said she wants to make sure models are in good health and she hopes her proposed charter would help stem anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder, in young women. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1833352"/></a>
Quebec provincial minister Christine St. Pierre said she wants to make sure models are in good health and she hopes her proposed charter would help stem anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder, in young women. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)
As Montreal Fashion Week kicked off this week, the provincial minister responsible for the status of women in Quebec announced a plan that would call for an end to super-thin models.

Christine St. Pierre said she would form a committee to look at adopting a charter that would prompt the fashion industry to take responsibility for the health of its models, according to a CBC News report.

St. Pierre said she wants to make sure models are in good health and she hopes such measures would help stem anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder, in young women.

“We have to change the mentality,” St. Pierre told CBC News. “We are in a position to say to them ‘OK, you have to do something.’ But I’m not looking for a law, I’m just looking for an involvement from the fashion industry.”

St. Pierre said the committee would be comprised of people from the fashion industry, and she hopes the charter will be adopted in March.

“If we work with the fashion industry they will be able to reach young women and young men and to talk to them,” she said. “This is what we are looking for, and also we want to address this problem with the health minister and all the businesses involved.”

Jean-François Daviau, producer of Montreal Fashion Week and co-president of Sensation Mode, told CBC News that while he believes a charter would be a good idea, the models themselves need support.

“We don’t want to point at her and say ‘You’re the problem. That’s another issue. We have to be very careful on the impact of such an action.”
Joan Delaney
Joan Delaney
Senior Editor, Canadian Edition
Joan Delaney is Senior Editor of the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times based in Toronto. She has been with The Epoch Times in various roles since 2004.