From Marois to Harper, niqab debate plays with xenophobic fire

The election is coming to an end. All the way, I resisted the urge to write about the niqab. Why? I didn't want to create more controversy and stir the already ugly pot simmering in many people's minds. But then, it became stronger than me. My brain isn't as disciplined as my fingers so I found myself typing out thoughts about the niqab.

Who would have thought that "niqab" -- a word not well known or used in the Muslim world -- would find its way into political debates among party leaders and hundreds of articles in the North American context?! Even the U.S. and U.K. newspapers that covered the Canadian election did so from the perspective of the niqab.

Marois Wrong On Quebecers' Expectations, Trudeau Says

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said a policy of multiculturalism in England has led to people "beating each other up and setting off bombs" because the society has no clear sense of identity.

She made the comments in an exclusive interview with the French-language newspaper Le Devoir about the Parti Québécois’ proposed charter of values.

In the interview, she said women working in daycares who wear hijabs are in a position to influence children to practice religion.

Quebec Economic Development 'Banque' Raises Red Flag In Federal Government

OTTAWA - It's a coming war of words between Ottawa and the Quebec government that you can take to the bank.

Premier Pauline Marois's Parti Quebecois government introduced a bill in the spring that would create an economic development bank for the province, offering loans and seed money for new businesses.

A just society would condemn Marois's divisive Charter

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a progressive political formation in Quebec known as the Parti Quebecois. Times change, principles change. Yet since the PQ was seen, however misguidedly, to represent progressive values in an increasingly social democratic Quebec, the NDP decided to forfeit the idea of a Quebec branch.

For decades the national NDP tied itself in knots trying to appeal both to Quebec and to The Rest of Canada. This was no easy trick. How do you square an unyielding circle? The objective was to demonstrate to Quebec the NDP's identification with its aspirations and to TROC the NDP's repudiation of Quebec separation -- the PQ's very raison d'etre.

To the contrary, Monsieur Harper

It is a marvellous country that tolerates as many contrasting styles of government as Canada does. In the late 1990s Preston Manning gave a news conference in Ottawa where he argued that, with Mike Harris and Ralph Klein running Ontario and Alberta on the right, Jean Chrétien must somehow be kept from running Ottawa on the left. In the end the only mechanism that could be found to fix the problem, if it was one, was a succession of general elections. It took many years after Manning voiced his complaint, but today Stephen Harper is running the country in a different direction.

Pauline Marois Hitler Photo On Facebook Slammed

Looks like Godwin's Law is still in full effect. At least in the case of the Internet discussion on incoming Quebec premier Pauline Marois.

A photo of Marois as Hitler was posted late Tuesday night to the MontrealOfficial Facebook. As of 9:30 am Wednesday, the photo had been shared more than 200 times and racked up nearly 700 comments. The page has 133,000 followers.

The photo is accompanied by the caption: "How long will it take her to fuck up Quebec?" in English.

Ottawa ordered to hand over long-gun registry data collected in Quebec

Quebec gun-control advocates celebrated a significant legal victory Monday in their effort to maintain the province’s part of the federal long-gun registry — while pointing out that the Superior Court decision represents only one step in preventing the destruction of what they argue is an important tool in crime prevention.

“It is part of a victory,” said Louise De Sousa, mother of Anastasia De Sousa, an 18-year-old student who was killed in the 2006 shooting at Dawson College. De Sousa was at the Montreal courthouse when Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard rendered his decision, and she was smiling afterward.

“(The registry) is a tool we need, and I think the judge saw that,” De Sousa said.

Judge sides with Quebec in long-gun registry battle

The federal government’s plan to destroy all data from its long-gun registry is unconstitutional, a judge has ruled, giving Ottawa 30 days to hand to Quebec records collected from the province’s gun owners.

In a decision released Monday morning, Mr. Justice Marc-André Blanchard of the Quebec Superior Court said the data had been collected jointly by federal and provincial officials and could not be erased unilaterally.

Gun-registry ruling gives Marois leverage in struggle with Ottawa

A provincial court has ordered Ottawa to save the Quebec data in the federal long-gun registry, an early boost to premier-designate Pauline Marois’s plans to engage the Harper government in a series of political battles.

The Quebec Superior Court decision to salvage the information from Quebec gun owners has fuelled an informal alliance of provincial politicians of all stripes who, with the federal New Democratic Party, denounced the Harper government for intransigence in federal-provincial relations.

Everyone benefits from women’s representation in politics

Pauline Marois is Quebec’s first female premier, a fact that got somewhat lost amid the nail-biting and shock that followed the Parti Québécois’ minority victory Tuesday night and then the shooting that shattered the celebrations. The new leader’s gender was significantly down the list of pertinent facts about the election. That, in itself, says something about the new normalization of women in Canadian politics, especially provincial politics.

Marois’ win brings to five the number of female first ministers in Canada today (there have only been 10), a remarkable number, given that Canada ranks 45th on the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s list of women in national parliaments, with women accounting for just 24.7 per cent of MPs.

Quebec election: Marois says ‘odious’ federal EI overhaul is more reason for independence

ÎLES-DE-LA-MADELAINE, QUE.—The federal government’s overhaul of the employment insurance system is yet another example of why Quebec needs independence, says Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois.

In an region that relies on tourism and fishing for its survival, many people here are preoccupied with Ottawa’s plan to force repeat users of the EI system into a similar occupation with a comparable wage if they can’t find a job on their own.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest defends use of attack ad in attempt to undermine PQ chief Pauline Marois

MONTREAL – Premier Jean Charest is defending his party’s use of negative advertising to discredit Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois.

But Guy Séguin, the man who shot the video used in the campaign, wants the Quebec Liberal Party to withdraw the ads because he never gave his permission for the video to be used in such a manner.

The ad was taken down from YouTube Tuesday night.

In its place is a message informing potential viewers that the video has been removed “due to a copyright claim by (the copyright protection service) Police du Net /Guy Séguin.”

Students unimpressed after Pauline Marois drops red square symbol of protests

MONTREAL - A decision by Pauline Marois to quit wearing the red square symbol of the student protest movement was met with a shrug at the nightly anti-tuition increase demonstration in Montreal Wednesday night.

Some marchers who sported the small felt square on their clothes felt that the Parti Quebecois leader had embraced the symbol out of political expediency and was shelving it for the same reasons.

"It doesn't surprise me that Pauline Marois decided to stop wearing the red square because it wasn't real support for the students," said Francis Piche, a junior college student. "The only reason she was opposing the tuition fee increase was because the Liberals were doing it but a Pequiste government wanted to do it too.