This from a letter to the Gazette:
So Bernard Landry is not satisfied with his approval rating of 76.2 per cent.
I’m sure the Parti Quebecois will now realize that it’s only fair that the Yes side should have to attract at least 76.2 per cent of the votes in the next referendum to break up the country.
Sounds good to me.
Terrified by yesterday’s departure of Pat O’Brien from the Liberal fold, Paul Martin has agreed to amend bill C-38 on same-sex marriage before passing it, to appease some members of his party:
They include:
- Stronger guarantees that Charter rights will not override religious freedoms
- Justices of the Peace who do not want to perform civil marriages of same-sex couples will not have to do so
- Churches are not required to rent out their halls for same-sex weddings
- Religious educational institutions will still be allowed to preach that homosexuality is against God’s law, without being subject to hate crime laws
Except for the second point about justices of the peace not being required to carry out the law, these amendments seem reasonable and designed to simply guarantee religious freedom.
Still, you have to wonder whether Martin would have done this if his fragile grip on power hadn’t been threatened yesterday. I’m wondering if he’s even capable of taking a stand and stating clearly that bill C-38 will pass because it’s the right thing to do.
Polling in Southern Lebanon has given an overwhelming victory to Syrian-backed terrorist faction Hezbollah. But just look at the choices that the people had:
Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said Hezbollah and the allied Shia party Amal won all 17 contested seats by a wide margin. The ticket had already been declared the winner of six other seats in the south where there were no challengers.
[ . . . ]
The vote across the south was so lopsided that the losers, a range of communists and independents, received little more than one-tenth of the vote.
Among the losers was Anwar Yassin, a communist ex-guerrilla who spent 17 years in Israel jail before he was freed in a prisoner swap last year. He received 18,450 votes.
Some choices. Geez, and we thought we had nobody worth voting for in our elections…
The PQ leadership race is shaping up to be interesting. Pauline Marois has already announced her candidacy and Francois Legault is expected to follow. But if Gilles Duceppe throws his hat into the ring, he’s almost certain to sweep the contest.
Unfortunately, the PQ old guard is determined to take the party down the old familiar road again:
Outgoing party vice-president Marie Malavoy warned that the leadership candidates must embrace the party program adopted yesterday, one that was largely influenced by Mr. Landry.
The program, which calls for a referendum on sovereignty “as soon as possible” should the PQ form the next government, reflected Mr. Landry’s approach. Party hard-liners failed in their bid to adopt a more radical program, and say they will now use the leadership race to influence candidates to ensure that whoever becomes party leader will be committed to governing Quebec as though it were a country, with the determination to achieve Quebec independence.
If this is indeed the “old guard’s last stand”, we can expect a full guns blazing sovereignty campaign to kick off right about now. The next election may be a couple of years away, but that just gives the PQ more time to rally support for separation. And with the federalist camp in shambles, it’s gonna be a *long* few years.
Update: Right on cue, Duceppe now says he’s considering running for the job. This is all for show; he wouldn’t have announced that if he hadn’t decided to run. Prepare for Premier Duceppe by 2008. *Sigh*…
Hot, sunny and beautiful all weekend, and raining on Monday morning. Sometimes, the weather just does what it’s supposed to.
I hope everyone enjoyed the glorious weekend.
Federal MP Pat O’Brien quit the Liberals and has decided to sit as an independent because he’s opposed to the Liberal bill to allow same-sex marriage.
With that view, Mr. O’Brien, why not just leap all the way to the Conservatives, where you can spend lots of time and energy opposing the rights of the gay minority in Canada to your heart’s content? After all, the Tories lost Belinda Stronach to the Libs, it could be considered a fair exchange.
Reading this news footnote about suspected ETA terrorists being extradited from Canada to Spain, I was struck by the following paragraph:
Perea, 31, and Plagaro, 33, sought political asylum in Quebec but the request was suspended when they were arrested in Montreal in June 2001 after the Spanish government requested their extradition, the Interior Ministry said.
Political asylum in Quebec.
Now, I suppose they could’ve come to La Belle Province for any number of reasons. Maybe they spoke fluent French. Maybe they had friends here. Hell, maybe they just liked our summer festivals and our lower drinking age, for all I know.
But is it possible that they thought that Quebec, with its separatist leanings and history of FLQ terorrism, might be more sympathetic to Basque terrorists than other places? Maybe they were banking on some sort of worldwide separatist reciprocal solidarity?
In any case, they’re heading back to Spain now to face the music. And despite my fears of Quebec separatism, I’m glad that the FLQ has been pretty much relegated to the fringe, and that our movement – unlike the Basque one – is for the most part political and non-violent in nature.
I guess the PQ is already gearing up for the next provincial election, as party leader Bernard Landry announced he will resign, paving the way for a new – and more charismatic – leader to be elected:
Landry made the surprise announcement after getting a 76.2 percent confidence vote from party members at the Parti Quebecois’ convention in Quebec City, capital of the mainly French-speaking province of 7.4 million.
“It breaks my heart to tell you this, but I’m doing it in the national interest,” Landry said, according to a report by CBC television. “I’m sorry to do this.”
Landry said previously that if he got more than 76 percent in the leadership review vote he would remain at the helm, but the 68-year-old politician has faced criticism from within the party since losing the 2003 provincial election.
Who’s surprised? Not me. Landry was never going to be party leader in the next election campaign, and this timing gives the PQ a chance to bring in somebody new before election frenzy hits.
My bet for new party leader? Gilles Duceppe. After all, he’s the most popular politician in Quebec right now, and the leadership of the Bloc is really nothing but a launching pad for provincial leadership, as established by Lucien Bouchard’s precedent.
It was already pretty much guaranteed that the PQ would win the next election, with the Liberals’ numbers somewhere down around the temperature in centigrade on a mid-January day in Montreal. But with Landry as premier, it was doubtful that the separatists could win a referendum. If Duceppe takes the helm, however, that changes the whole ball game. And unless the federalist camp starts gearing up for a fight soon, there’s a frighteningly realistic possibility that we could lose.
Called to testify for the defence in Karla Homolka’s hearing on whether she should face special restrictions after her release from prison, a psychiatrist testified that she has only average risk of reoffending:
Karla Homolka suffers self-esteem problems but is not a psychopath and is not at a greater risk of reoffending than any other inmate now serving time, a Quebec court heard Friday.
Considering the high rate of recidivism among Canada’s ex-convicts, I’m wondering if that’s supposed to be reassuring.
Update: The court ruling has imposed restrictions on Homolka for after her release, in an almost unprecedented decision. If I were the betting type, I’d bet on the decision being appealed. In the meantime, maybe the restrictions will help keep tabs on one of the worst criminals Canada has ever known.
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