André Drouin, City Councillor Behind Divisive 2007 Debate, Happy Niqab Is Election Issue

HÉROUXVILLE – André Drouin is “more than satisfied” that Conservative leader Stephen Harper has made the niqab face covering, worn by a handful of Muslim women, an election issue.

For Drouin, Harper’s defence of “Canadian values,” is in tune with his own Hérouxville code of conduct, adopted in 2007, when he sat on the village council.

The retired engineer’s code sparked a divisive debate in Quebec over “reasonable accommodation” of religious differences.

‘Since 2007, I have never given up,” Drouin said in an interview in his lakeside home.
Drouin has spent the intervening years developing a worldwide network to communicate and exchange views about immigration, religious practices he regards as incompatible with western values, and multiculturalism.

Every day he sends emails in French and English to about 100,000 correspondents. They, in turn, resend his missives across their own networks, spanning the globe.

“Canada, because of multiculturalism, has lost its bearings,” he said, adding immigrants he knows agree with him. Read more

50 Years Ago, Immigration Changed in America

Immigration is one of the hottest topics in the 2016 presidential campaign, generating angry debate over whether to deport millions of people who entered the U.S. illegally or grant them some form of amnesty, andwhether to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. But the history of the current furor goes back 50 years, to one of the most far-reaching laws ever enacted in the country: the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. A review of that law and its impact provides many lessons for today, notably that substantial change can be a very lengthy process and “reform” can have huge, unforeseen consequences. Read more

Conservatives stop short of ruling out ban on niqabs for public servants

Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre did not rule out the possibility of a re-elected Tory government pursuing a ban on face coverings for public servants during a Thursday morning press conference in Ottawa.

Poilievre, who is the lead minister for the national capital region and running for re-election in the Ontario riding of Carleton, met with media to discuss an open letter from Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to the country’s public servants that outlined the government’s commitment to resolving a number of ongoing collective bargaining issues.

 

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Trump says he’d send back Syrian refugees taken in by U.S.

KEENE, N.H. — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday that if he’s elected president he would send back Syrian refugees taken in by the U.S. because they may be Islamic State militants in disguise.

The billionaire businessman, who is leading early opinion polls, said during an hour-long speech — which included several profanities — that he was worried the refugees, who have been fleeing their country after years of civil war, could be Islamic State militants looking to get into the U.S.

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BEN CARSON, DONALD TRUMP TAKE STAND AGAINST SHARIA AS AMERICANS BRACE FOR MIGRANT INFLUX

According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Muslims throughout South Asia, sub-Saharan African, the Middle East and North Africa favor “making Sharia the official law of the land.” Earlier this year, filmmaker Ami Horowitz interviewed Muslim residents of the Cedar Riverside section of Minneapolis, many of whom said that they would prefer to live under Sharia law. Read more

REPORT: MUSLIMS ARE THE FASTEST GROWING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

The report, which analyzes data from American Community Survey (ACS), finds that the foreign-born population in the U.S. hit a new record high 42.4 million in July 2014.

The report details that some of “the sending countries with the largest percentage increases in the number of immigrants living in the United States since 2010 were Saudi Arabia (up 93 percent); Bangladesh (up 37 percent); Iraq (up 36 percent); Egypt (up 25 percent); Pakistan, India, and Ethiopia (all up 24 percent); Nigeria and Ghana (both up 21 percent).”

“In contrast to most sending regions and countries, the number of immigrants from Europe and Canada declined,” the report notes.

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