Quebec mayor argues for prayer before council meetings

Religious minorities appear to be the target in two separate debates in Quebec — one surrounding a mayor's right to pray and another surrounding a radio talk show host's right to blather.

The Canadian Press reports that Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay went before the Quebec Court of Appeal to fight for the right to pray before council meetings.

A Quebec human rights tribunal previously barred councillors from praying before meetings and also ordered they remove a crucifix and statue of Jesus Christ from the chamber, according to the Canadian Press.

Of course, Tremblay isn't barred from praying in private before the meeting, just from praying in the council chambers. But that's not the point.

Tremblay said the fight is about preserving Quebec's Roman Catholic heritage.

"[I]t is not only the trial of Jean Tremblay. It is more than that: it is about the whole culture of Quebec," he told the news service.

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As Tremblay himself jokes, it is better to have a mayor who worships than a mayor who worships money (a not-so-subtle jab at some of Quebec's troubled mayors). But one questions why either worshiping type of mayor can't keep their personal affairs out of city hall.

Tremblay made headlines during Quebec's summer election when he criticized a Parti Quebecois candidate's foreign background. He said Djemila Benhabib had no right to impose her party's plan for a secular charter on Saguenay.

"What angers me is that we, the soft French-Canadians, are going to allow a person who arrived here from Algeria — we can't even pronounce her name — to dictate to us how to behave, how to respect our culture," he said at the time.

Benhabib ended up narrowly losing the election to Trois-Rivières incumbent Danielle St-Amand.

Despite the recent appointment of a Jewish mayor in Montreal, it seems to be a tough time religious minorities in Quebec.

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On top of Tremblay's mission to reassert a connection between the Roman Catholic Church and state, there is also the action of a late-night radio host who is under fire for tepidly supporting an attack against Quebec's Jewish community.

CBC reports that 98.5 FM admonished Jacques Fabi after he called the Jewish community "annoying" on the air and seemingly goading on a call-in guest who lauded the Holocaust.

The National Post's Graeme Hamilton called for Fabi to be fired.

"Like one of his problem callers, Mr. Fabi has lost it. There is no need to feign a technical problem. Just drop him," Hamilton wrote.

Perhaps Fabi would be more comfortable engaging in such conversations in private, where Jewish advocacy groups would not listen and demand apology.