Live – Quebec election: PQ candidate ‘retracts certain comments’ after report on her anti-Islam statements

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In the wake of a Le Devoir report on her previous anti-Islam statements, Lyne Jubinville, the Parti Québécois candidate in Laval’s Ste-Rose riding, has published a Facebook statement to “clarify and retract certain comments.”

“Islam is not us: we have nothing to do with it, we don’t know that!!!” she wrote on one occasion. Another time, she said she was offended to see “the hijabs invading more and more our public landscape”.

At one point, she wrote about “veiled women” on Ste-Catherine St. in Montreal: “Welcome home, people from other countries. But don’t count on us to build you mosques and let your muezzins announce the call to prayer in the middle of the street when our churches are for sale and our bells are increasingly silent.”

In her Facebook post after the Le Devoir story was published, Jubinville said: “I fully recognize the right of new Quebecers and of all Quebecers to believe in God and to go to the places of worship of their choice according to their religion. Although I am very critical of the effect of religions on women’s rights, I recognize that everyone in Quebec is entitled to their beliefs and therefore has the right to practice their religion.”

She added: “I also want to make it clear that my critical comments about religions apply to all religions and not one in particular. My critical mind is aimed at religious fundamentalism and not at one religion in particular. I recognize and have often affirmed that religious fundamentalism is found in all monotheistic religions. As I have published on several occasions, I believe that secularism and a healthy reserve regarding religion in the public space preserve the right of each religion to exist in social peace and tranquillity.”

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Read my previous live blogs here.

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2. Quebec election, Sept. 26: High turnout in early voting a ‘good sign’ Quebecers want change, Duhaime says

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4. Read Andy Riga’s previous live blogs