Chris Selley: Trudeau's mea culpa over his electoral reform debacle is truly mind boggling

I cannot recall seeing such an implausibly ambitious plea for clemency for such a transparently cynical record. It says a lot that he would even attempt it

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-trudeaus-mea-culpa-over-his-electoral-reform-debacle-is-truly-mind-boggling?fbclid=IwAR0_QI-8Pc3DWhOvuNQz5WnFWcqjudqQbgfGt2NAE2jHhxVTgMIDKKgeM9Y

Pre-campaign books about politicians are always interesting when the author gets significant access to the subject, because it gives the subject a chance to offer a well-thought-out and carefully considered case for his election or re-election to an impartial reporter. It’s not a press conference full of headline-hungry hacks marinating in Red Bull; it’s a civilized, coffee-scented sit-down with a journalist whom the candidate considers — at the very least — fair-minded and not liable to knife him in the back. With a greasy, no-holds-barred campaign in the offing, here’s his chance to make a more civilized case to the electorate.

Parliament Hill reporter Aaron Wherry’s new book, Promise and Peril: Justin Trudeau in Power, offers some fascinating insights along those lines, not least on the question of the Trudeau government’s signature debacle. I don’t mean SNC-Lavalin (although nothing is challenging it for second place). I mean the Liberals’ promise, later doubled and tripled down upon and then abandoned in jaw-dropping fashion, that 2015 would be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post system.

Don Macpherson: Anglos' supposed new political influence is an illusion

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/don-macpherson-anglos-supposed-new-political-influence-is-an-illusion

The harsh mathematical reality for anglos is in newly published socio-economic data on the 125 provincial ridings on the new electoral map to be used in this year’s election. 

They show that people who most often speak French at home are the majority of the population in all but 13 ridings. In the latter, speakers of languages other than French or English combine with anglos to form the majority ... 

Anglos, however, form the dominant home-language group in only six ridings, all in the western half of Montreal Island.

For campaigning federal politicians, our freedoms take a back seat to votes

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-for-campaigning-federal-politicians-our-freedoms-take-a-back-seat-to/?fbclid=IwAR0lli7KZ5Rnuu5P2WTqptgsyCJiPgswRpp1j7iW1KMMpUALwHQmX9ADLJ4

Amrit Kaur, a young woman from Quebec, has been in the news this month because of her decision to take a teaching job in Surrey, B.C.

Ms. Kaur is Sikh. She wears a turban. She earned an education degree in university, but graduated this year at the same time that the Quebec government enacted Bill 21, a discriminatory law that prohibits many provincial employees – including teachers – from wearing religious headgear or symbols at work.

Because of this restriction, Ms. Kaur has accepted a teaching position at the other end of the country, where she will be free to dress as she chooses ...

Secularism: Québecers are religious about it

https://theconversation.com/secularism-quebecers-are-religious-about-it-114799

The result of the Roman Catholic historic domination in Québec is that many French Québecers equate Québec culture with Catholic culture. They view non-Catholic expressions of religion as something foreign to Québec’s identity.

Although the decision to remove the crucifix was seen as a compromise by the government, Québecers answering a new poll felt differently. A survey indicated that 63 per cent of respondents believed that “crosses and other religious symbols that adorn public institutions should remain in their place because they are part of our heritage.”

Over the past 50 years, the religious practice of French-speaking Québecers who were baptized Catholic has dropped to historic lows. In 2014, a survey found only seven per cent of Catholics reported that they practised their faith on a weekly basis — the proportion was almost 100 per cent in 1960.

Analysis: Liberals dust off nationalist convictions to woo francophone voters

After two days of meetings, the Liberal youth wing has come up with a new series of nationalist policies designed to reconnect the party to francophones. The question remains. Is anybody listening?

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/liberals-dust-off-on-nationalist-convictions-to-woo-francophone-voters?fbclid=IwAR2so5QereSDVq_34M3iCWtw3eHaTx192Wq7X2zWu0SfsDY3k4WUPn7WMiY

QUEBEC — The Liberal quest is on for the elusive francophone voter.

After suffering its worst electoral defeat in 152 years in 2018, Quebec’s Liberals — in this case the youth wing — spent the weekend re-tooling party policies that they hope will eventually woo francophone voters in the regions back into their ranks.

The operation was clear from the get go: create a more nationalist profile for the party ...

NP: Why Quebec grocer would think she could ban English

No mystery why Quebec grocer would think ban her employees from speaking English | Full Comment | National Post

MONTREAL – Battling bad publicity generated Thursday by news that employees at one of its supermarkets in Quebec are prohibited from speaking English, Sobeys chief executive officer Marc Poulin called the store’s actions “unacceptable” and “totally unexplainable.”

In truth, it is no mystery why a Quebec grocer would think she had the right to dictate what language her workers spoke, even in their free time. She need only take her cue from the state, which routinely sends the message that French must prevail from the schoolyard to the boardroom.

In 2011, Quebec’s largest school board, the Commission scolaire de Montréal, announced plans to make its schools French-only zones.

Macpherson: Why Mathieu Bock-Côté matters in Quebec

The nationalism he advocates is neither racial nor, technically, ethnic. It is cultural, with a place for only one culture.

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/macpherson-why-mathieu-bock-cote-matters-in-quebec?fbclid=IwAR28gxXlDb0eKWSgsWKvN24aIENdn-kJRhYEPyBMijv8q1lncOcjueBRi3U

In a book recently plugged by the premier of Quebec, a reader was startled to see an apology for defenders of symbols of an American pre-Civil War Southern “civilization” built on the whip-scarred backs of black plantation slaves.

Among these defenders, in their 2017 Charlottesville “confrontation” with “extreme-left militants” to which author Mathieu Bock-Côté refers, were neo-Nazis ...

R v NS (SCC 2012): Niqab Rules Balance Religious Freedom and the Right to a Fair Trial - The Centre for Constitutional Studies

R v NS (2012): Niqab Rules Balance Religious Freedom and the Right to a Fair Trial - The Centre for Constitutional Studies

In R v NS,[1] decided on December 20, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on whether a witness could be allowed to wear a niqab[2] for
religious reasons while testifying in a criminal trial. The Court
determined that this issue would be examined on a case-by-case basis.
The following featured court ruling examines the Court’s four-part test
meant to balance the witness’ right to religious freedom (section 2(a)
of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter)) and the accused’s right to a fair trial (sections 7 and 11(d) of the Charter).[3]

If an accommodation is possible, do the salutary effects of accommodating the claimant outweigh the deleterious effects of doing so?[17]

Don Macpherson: The bluewashing of the Quebec Liberal Party

By proposing a law on "interculturalism," the Quebec Liberals have legitimized the principle of new restrictions on minority rights.

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/don-macpherson-the-bluewashing-of-the-quebec-liberal-party?fbclid=IwAR2w7V4K-r9MuFOsEH6mNJDVMCLcWcV7SpT19kg_1-jqg1_iIOFgEWNhyZ8

As if Quebec politics wasn’t rancorously polarized enough already, the supposedly inclusive provincial Liberals, of all parties, have added not one, but two new divisive identity issues to the agenda.

With the apparent approval of most of their party elders, including all the declared and potential candidates for the vacant Liberal leadership, the party’s youth wing last weekend adopted resolutions calling for a Quebec internal constitution and a law on “interculturalism.”

The constitution would be written by a representative constituent assembly. Since federal politicians refuse to provide another political crisis in Quebec over constitutional reform, the Liberals would produce their own ...

Jedwab: Diversity debate: Poll shows sharp divide between Montreal and regions

As politicians spar over whether a woman in a hijab can be a police officer, details from a Léger poll reveal a deep divide between multicultural Montreal and the rest of Quebec on immigration.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/diversity-debate-poll-shows-sharp-divide-between-montreal-and-regions

“There’s a Montreal vs. Quebec divide. There’s also a divide in Montreal between francophones and non-francophones,” said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies ...

In Greater Montreal, with 4.1 million residents from St-Jérôme to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 39 per cent of respondents want to reduce or eliminate immigration, while 41 per cent want to maintain current levels and 18 per cent want to increase it.

In contrast, 58 per cent of respondents in central Quebec — the region most opposed to immigration — say it should be reduced or eliminated.