Graeme Hamilton: Marois may be the one ‘reintegrating in another job’ after the election

Cleverly written and the irony of Marois’ juxtaposed photo op and messaging:

If it had been held a day earlier, Parti Québécois Premier Pauline Marois’ visit Wednesday to a centre helping immigrant women find work would have made more sense: “We are a welcoming nation. We want more immigrants from North Africa. We need to combat discrimination in hiring … April Fools!”

But Ms. Marois, whose charter of Quebec values would prohibit women wearing the hijab from working in the public sector, kept a straight face as she praised her government’s openness one minute, then said a daycare worker who refused to remove her hijab would lose her job the next.

“At that point they will have to make a choice, that’s for sure,” she told reporters, noting that the centre she was visiting, the Collectif des femmes immigrantes du Québec, is skilled at helping immigrants find jobs. “There are people who we can help to reintegrate in another job.”

Graeme Hamilton: Marois may be the one ‘reintegrating in another job’ after the election | National Post.

Haroon Siddiqui is equally critical on the use of minorities to advance the Charter message:

Anti-Semites usually insist they have Jewish friends. The late Pim Fortuyn, the gay right-wing Dutch politician, claimed he had several Moroccan boyfriends. The PQ parades its female Jewish and Muslim candidates — Evelyne Abitbol, of Moroccan Jewish ancestry, and Yasmina Chouakri, Leila Mahiout and Djemila Benhabib, all of Algerian Muslim descent. The PQ also backs Fatima Houda-Pepin, of Moroccan Muslim ancestry, who quit the Liberal party because of her support of the charter and is running as an independent. They are all entitled to their views and political choices. But the ironies of their high-profile candidacies are inescapable.
They are peddling their religious identities to champion the removal of religious identities from the state. They are feminists who want to fire vulnerable women from work. They promote post-religious modernism by importing the intra-religious divisions of their homelands rather than adhering to the Canadian rule of law that guarantees equality for people of all faiths or no faith.

Parti Québécois apes demagoguery of European right: Siddiqui

In the last few days of the election, communities are mobilizing their vote to defeat the Charter. While the focus of this article is with respect to the Jewish community in Quebec, expect that other community organizations are also active:

« Nous n’avons pas été épargnés par les débats publics décevants entourant la controversée charte des valeurs québécoises proposée par le gouvernement que dirige le Parti québécois », indique un courriel interne de la Fédération CJA, l’organisation qui représente les communautés juives de Montréal, obtenu par Le Devoir.

« Nous encourageons les membres de la communauté à faire tout leur possible, le jour des élections, pour aller voter pour le parti de leur choix. Même dans les circonscriptions qui semblent gagnées d’avance, les bulletins ont tous leur importance, car le financement des partis politiques est calculé au prorata du nombre de votes reçus à l’élection précédente. […] En ces jours qui précèdent l’élection, jouez un rôle actif dans notre démocratie et encouragez ceux qui vous entourent à s’exprimer », ajoute le message signé par Susan Laxer, présidente, et Deborah Corber, chef de la direction de la Fédération CJA.

Charte: les opposants sur un pied d’alerte | Le Devoir.