Excerpt:
With a day left before the crucial leaders' debate, the Parti Québécois tried to refocus the election campaign on the one issue it thought could bring in the votes, regardless of Quebecers' views on the economy or Quebec independence: the proposed Charter of Quebec Values.
At a news conference Wednesday, Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville, flanked by four female candidates of North African origin, urged Quebecers to vote PQ or say goodbye to the charter of values, as his is the only party proposing a solution to the never-ending conundrum of reasonable accommodation — and a ban on religious symbols.
Noticeably absent, however, despite her fervour for the charter, was PQ candidate Louise Mailloux, who in public statements has equated circumcision to rape, and evoked the notion of a "kosher tax," by which rabbis and imams are "scamming" people into paying more for kosher or halal food to finance religious wars.