Quebec judge rejects challenge by merchants prosecuted for violating sign law - Times Colonist

Quebec judge rejects challenge by merchants prosecuted for violating sign law - Times Colonist

MONTREAL - A Quebec judge has rejected a legal challenge by about two dozen businesses that were prosecuted for not respecting the province's French Language Charter.But lawyer Brent Tyler quickly announced Wednesday he plans to appeal the ruling, which he says didn't surprise him."I told my clients: 'Don't even try and think about getting involved in this case if you don't want to go the whole distance,'" he said outside the courtroom.- See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/quebec-judge-rejects-challenge-by-merchants-prosecuted-for-violating-sign-law-1.1745182#sthash.JXuFelXp.dpuf

The Mascia judgment: Justice denied - The Métropolitain

The Mascia judgment: Justice denied - The Métropolitain

Justice Mascia twisted fact, reason and logic to buttress the bankrupt notion so many of the politically correct have that we must maintain our "social peace" on language. Here's a news flash... there is no social peace on language. Every day non-francophone citizens are demeaned by words and actions from legislators to police officers to ticket takers to bus drivers to revenue agents to the OQLF and the list goes on. They are demeaned because the effects of 101 - overtly and subliminally - have led too many in authority to assume that "les autres" are not at all equal. Social peace is not the goal of a free society. Social justice is.
There is another fundamental element of justice Mascia ignored. The doctrine of acquired rights. From the time of Montesquieu and his seminal work "De l'esprit des lois," western law has attempted to guard against encroaching on rights citizens had enjoyed prior to the passage of new law. Indeed, international legal covenants on ethnic, religious, cultural and language rights have sought to protect this very principle because it is so crucial to safeguarding minorities. By this doctrine - even without reference to Canadian constitutional protection - if Quebec was an independent state at the time 101 was passed, the acquired rights of English speaking citizens at the time of passage would have to be respected.
Just two and a half years ago this province joined in the Quebec City Declaration of the Inter-Parliamentary union reaffirming these principles. Just two and a half weeks ago tens of thousands of Montrealers marched in the streets for freedom of expression in the wake of the Paris massacres. The hypocrisy is stifling. When will we bring to an end, to paraphrase Gary Shapiro, "second-class citizenship in a first-class country?" History has taught us that the courage to confront a society's treachery often starts with bold and brave judges. Justice Mascia missed an opportunity to let truth triumph.

Islam and blasphemy

Salam Elmenyawi of Montreal Islamic council says Islam protects freedom of speech, even regarding blasphemy, and denounces violent revenge for such.

Don Macpherson: Jean-François Lisée, potential threat to Pierre Karl Péladeau in Parti Québécois leadership campaign

http://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/don-macpherson-jean-francois-lisee-potential-threat-to-pierre-karl-peladeau-in-parti-quebecois-leadership-campaign

Beware the politician who has nothing left to lose. For he or she can afford to have principles.
That’s what makes Jean-François Lisée potentially dangerous to front-runner Pierre Karl Péladeau in the Parti Québécois leadership campaign.
Lisée is facing the possibility that after less than three years in the National Assembly, his career in active politics is already nearing its end.

Sondage: 59% des Québécois en faveur d'une charte de la laïcité | Charte de la laïcité

Sondage: 59% des Québécois en faveur d'une charte de la laïcité | Charte de la laïcité

Un sondage SOM laisse croire que
les récents attentats en France ont ravivé certaines perceptions
négatives des Québécois à l'endroit des immigrants et des musulmans.

Les résultats du sondage commandité par Cogeco Nouvelles démontrent
que 16 % des répondants ont reconnu que leur perception des immigrants
avait changé négativement depuis les évènements de Paris.





Par ailleurs, 54 % des répondants estiment qu'on doit diffuser les
caricatures de Mahomet alors que 26 % s'opposent à leur publication; 20 %
demeurent indécis.

Québec planche sur un plan d'action pour lutter contre le radicalisme religieux | ICI.Radio-Canada.ca

Québec planche sur un plan d'action pour lutter contre le radicalisme religieux | ICI.Radio-Canada.ca



Québec prépare un plan d'action pour lutter contre la
montée du radicalisme religieux. La ministre de l'Immigration estime
qu'il y a urgence d'agir pour contrer l'intégrisme, il s'agit d'une
question de sécurité nationale. Kathleen Weil insiste : « il n'y a pas
une juridiction ou un État qui est à l'abri. On est tous à risque »
devant la menace terroriste.




La teneur du plan d'action pourrait être révélée d'ici la fin de l'année.




Pour mener à bien le plan d'action pour combattre l'intégrisme
religieux, la ministre Weil sollicitera la participation des ministres
de l'Éducation, de la Protection de la Jeunesse, de la Sécurité
publique, de la Famille et de l'Emploi.

Would Charlie Hebdo's material be constitutional in Quebec?

Evidently so; the French newspapers published the Charlie cartoons libelling the prophet Muhammad. of course they did. they would have to have respect for others to consider others' respect.

Charlie Hebdo Paris shooting: Quebec newspapers publish Muhammad cartoon

The Montreal Gazette, the English-language daily, decided not to run the same image, which was originally published in 2006.
The cartoon shows the half-hidden, grimacing face of the Prophet Muhammad, saying, "It's tough to be loved by idiots." 
In a joint statement published alongside the cartoon, the French-language newspapers explained they wanted to honour the victims of the Paris shootings and show their support for the “fundamental principle of freedom of expression.”
“Attacking someone simply for their ideas and opinions is an unacceptable affront to democracy,” the statement said.

Sugar Sammy's English ads did [NOT] break OQLF signage rules - Montreal - CBC News

Sugar Sammy's English ads did break OQLF signage rules - Montreal - CBC News

Montreal comedian Sugar Sammy
asked for — and received — a language complaint for his latest
advertising campaign, but was it all a crock?

The short answer is no [WRONG], but it certainly was designed to stoke the fiery flames of language debate in Quebec.

Advertising firm Sid Lee took
credit for the comedian's billboards put up late November goading people
into filing complaints with the Office québécois de la langue française.

Michael Den Tandt: Tom Mulcair is Ottawa’s best Parliamentarian — and yet he’s the only party leader likely to lose his job

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/04/michael-den-tandt-tom-mulcair-is-ottawas-best-parliamentarian-and-yet-hes-the-only-party-leader-likely-to-lose-his-job/

New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair is the most effective Parliamentarian working in Ottawa today. The opposition leader is ferociously intelligent, quick on his feet and naturally authoritative. In small groups, he can be gregarious and charming. He works hard. Add healthy ambition to the list and you have a package that should be yielding his party big political dividends.
Yet it hasn’t.
Indeed, Mulcair is the only leader of a federal party who stands a fair chance of losing his job following the federal election, tentatively slated for later this year. His candidates have been hammered in every byelection round since the May 2, 2011, general election. Outside Quebec, the NDP’s standing has plummeted. Its national popular support in the low 20 per cent range is, for a fringe party, pretty good. For one hoping to take power, it’s abysmal.

What our Supreme Court can teach Spain about secession

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/what-our-supreme-court-can-teach-spain-about-secession/article21125746/

It’s not often that you attend a symposium on constitutional law in Quebec and expect to be flummoxed. This in a province where, not that long ago, it was thought that children dreamed not of playing in the NHL but of teaching constitutional law.

But on a cold morning last December, in a small, dark room at the Université de Montréal, those in attendance witnessed an extraordinary political scene. There they were, in a high-noon intellectual shoot out: Stéphane Dion, father of the Clarity Act, and his old political foe, Joseph Facal, former intergovernmental minister in the PQ cabinet.