Category Archives: Canada

Quebec halal butchers vandalised and shot at

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Souibgui AbdelbariA halal shop owner in Quebec’s Eastern Townships is blaming the provincial government’s secularism charter for acts of vandalism and violence, including air-rifle shots fired at his window.

Vandals have also showered Souibgui Abdelbari’s store with “No to Islam” placards and hundreds of paper crosses. “In my opinion, this is related to the charter,” he said, referring to the Parti Quebecois’ proposed ban on religious symbols in the public service. These things didn’t happen in Sherbrooke before that.”

Attacks against Abdelbari’s shop have intensified in recent weeks. A storefront window was shattered twice and he also found bullet holes in a window. More recently, the front of his shop was littered with about 500 small crosses. “It makes me fear for my family’s safety,” he said. “Someone who does things like that could do something worse.”

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Quebec’s politicians present spineless spectacle over ‘charter of values’ debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard migrated from saying the Charter was unnecessary and would pass “over my dead body” all the way to stipulating what “must be included in the Charter” in order to “affirm [the] values of the host society.” (For some reason this includes a ban on public sector workers wearing niqabs and burkas because they cover the face, and chadors despite the fact they don’t.) Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault’s “moderate” compromise proposal would still ban teachers from wearing religious symbols. The hard-left Québec Solidaire is the acme of tolerance, drawing the line on such restrictions at judges and police officers — but it only has two MNAs and 8% support in the latest Léger Marketing poll, published Jan. 20. (After QS MNA Amir Khadir was recently photographed in discussion with Muslims wearing hijabs, the pro-labour, pro-sovereignty, pro-charter group SPQ Libre stridently accused him of cuddling up to fundamentalists.)

Chris Selley argues that even if the Parti Québécois gets its way and manages to impose the so-called secularism charter it may well face defiance over the actual implementation of the proposed bans. In the meantime, rival political parties of left and right have demonstrated a spineless failure to take a stand against the PQ on this issue.

National Post, 7 February 2014

Highly qualified Muslim immigrants face employment discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, Quebec business interests sounded an alarm about the negative economic ramifications on the province of the proposed values charter. First the Conseil du patronat and then the head of a cable and media company warned that Bill 60 would discourage immigrants needed for economic growth.

This issue arose the first day of the charter hearings last month, when the leader of a Muslim organization talked about a crisis among families of highly qualified North Africans who are being shut out of jobs in their fields.

Samira Laouni, of Communication pour l’ouverture et le rapprochement interculturel, estimated that current unemployment in the North African community is around 30 per cent – even though overall unemployment in Montreal is roughly 8 per cent. Laouni contends that employment discrimination against Muslims started after 9/11 and deteriorated after the Herouxville incident in 2007, when the town council there passed a code of conduct for minorities targeting Muslims. She commented that since the proposal of the Quebec values charter, the employment situation for Muslims has worsened.

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Montreal metro death leads to outburst of anti-Muslim hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Naima Rharouity was a 47-year-old mother who lived in Villeray with her two young boys, ages five and seven. “She really took care of her kids,” said her niece Soukaina Rharouity. “They were the centre of her life.” Rharouity lost her life in the most horrific way. Her scarf and hair somehow got caught between the moving steps in a metro escalator, strangling her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Overnight, the incident has gone from tragic accident to an intense internet debate, and media misfire. Several news outlets were reporting that Rharouity had been strangled not by a scarf, but by a hijab.

“The lead of TVA and Journal de Montreal to allege that the woman was wearing a hijab fails on a basic level of journalistic discipline and that’s the level of verification,” said Alan Conter, a Concordia Journalism Law and Ethics Professor. “Obviously there was no verification done.”

“Maybe it was a hijab but why would you insist in telling us?” said Julien Day, a writer for Voir. “For me it’s a no news.” Day says he was shocked by the replies he got on an article he wrote criticizing the media’s coverage. “There were pretty violent reactions like she deserved it and maybe people will learn that you wear your hijab at home and no where else,” he said.

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Family at Charter hearings describes being ‘marked’ by Muslim customs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Claude PineaultA family’s presentation at the Charter of Values hearings in the National Assembly is getting a lot of attention online.

A YouTube video where the Pineault-Caron family spoke of their travels to Morocco and Turkey shows them concerned and dumbfounded by common Muslim customs.

Among these customs was taking off shoes upon entering a mosque and praying on all fours. “Taking off your shoes, what is that?” said Genevieve Caron. “Praying on all fours on a little carpet – what is that?” Caron said they complied because they had gone there to visit, but when she toured the mosque and saw a large curtain, with men praying on one side and women praying on the other, she remained “marked” by what she’s seen.

Claude Pineault [pictured] went on to describe his experience in a marketplace in Tangier, Morocco, where he said he was pickpocketed by two men wearing religious headgear. “Who was under those disguises? Women? Men? I don’t know,” he said, “What I do know is it’s unthinkable to permit people to walk around in Quebec – on the streets, in public places, anywhere besides houses and in private – wearing these disguises.”

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Quebec values charter takes a beating at opening day of public hearings

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Samira LaouniA Muslim woman wearing a hijab put the Parti Québécois on the defensive in a sharp exchange on the first day of hearings over the secular charter that would prohibit public sector employees from wearing overt religious symbols.

Samira Laouni told the minority PQ government that its proposed legislation was creating social tensions unheard of in Quebec until now. Some Muslim women have been spat on and have had their head scarf torn off, she said. “I’ve been here for 15 years. I have never seen it like this until now,” she told the committee.

Ms. Laouni was among the first seven to appear at the National Assembly, but 250 parties have submitted briefs and 200 hours have been set aside for presentations over the next several weeks.

The issue has divided Quebeckers, and opposition parties accuse the PQ of trying to take advantage of the storm of protest to attract enough voter support, especially in predominantly francophone ridings, to win a majority government in an election many expect will be held this spring.

The PQ minister responsible for democratic institutions, Bernard Drainville, went to great lengths to defend the bill he tabled last November. He argued that only 20 per cent of Muslim women in Quebec wear the veil. “That is one in five that won’t be affected by the restrictive measures,” he said.

Ms. Laouni lashed back by reminding the minister that it was his responsibility to protect minorities. “In a democratic country you need to think about the 1 per cent that is affected. You don’t think about the absolute majority, you think about the minority that is being crushed,” she said.

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Parti Québécois government minister says ‘charter of values’ can spearhead general attack on multiculturalism in Canada

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jean-Francois Lisée with Pauline MaroisA commission delving into the debate over the Quebec proposed charter of secularism can serve as an inspiration for an English Canada growing increasingly fed up with multiculturalism, the Parti Québécois government says.

It has been more than four months since Quebec began debating the need to further separate church and state and to enact a public-sector ban on religious symbols, but parliamentary hearings that start on Tuesday – the final step before the bill can be voted into law – could be the spark that sets a secular wildfire burning across the country.

That, at the very least, is the word from International Relations Minister Jean-François Lisée [pictured, with Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois], as nearly 300 Quebec citizens and organizations from across the spectrum prepare to dive back into the contentious debate over religious accommodation.

Lisée, who is the PQ’s interlocutor for Quebec anglophones and those outside Quebec, writes in a New York Times opinion piece that while the initiative is opposed by the federal government, anglophones, universities, hospitals, municipalities and others, it has the potential to push Quebec to the vanguard of a secular trail being blazed in Europe and around the globe.

“In a very real sense, the debate over Quebec’s charter may be the last stand of Canada’s multiculturalist experiment. Whatever the immediate outcome, it may be only a matter of time until Canadian multiculturalism finds itself buried alongside its European siblings,” he writes.

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Quebecers campaign against Charter of Values

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Support Another campaign day

A Montreal-based group is calling on all Canadians to join them on January 12th and 13th to protest against the Quebec government’s proposed Charter of Values for the province, urging Canadians to join them by wearing a hijab, turban, kippa or crucifix for a day.

“We invite all Canadians to walk in the footsteps of a visible minority for a day, to show their support for our Canadian and Quebec rights and freedoms and protest against this discriminatory charter,” Sama Al-Obaidy, Support Another spokesperson, told OnIslam.net.

“As the hearings about the charter are scheduled to begin next week in the National Assembly, we will be speaking as one voice against Bill 60 and demonstrating what the true values of Quebec and Canada are – those of multiculturalism, understanding, respect and social harmony,” she added.

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Bomb threat to Vancouver mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mounties evacuated gatherers at a North Vancouver mosque Monday evening after police received a call there was a bomb in the building.

Officers and a police dog searched the building in the 300-block of Lynn Avenue into the night but have not yet found any trace of explosives, said North Vancouver RCMP Spokesman Cpl. Richard De Jong.

The threat came in around 5:50 from an unknown caller, he said. Police were told the bomb would go off at a certain time.

Vancouver Sun, 30 December 2013