The Conservative government’s choice to head the troubled human-rights organization Rights and Democracy is a former Canadian Alliance candidate who has argued for restrictions on Muslim immigration to Montreal.
Don’t get too excited, though. First off: he’s French. And remember — all politicians are dirtbags:
Mr. Latulippe was solicitor-general under Liberal premier Robert Bourassa but quit the Cabinet in 1987 amid allegations of conflict of interest and favoritism involving his girlfriend and his former law firm. He did not seek re-election and was named Quebec’s delegate-general to Mexico and later Brussels.
In 1994, after the Parti Quebecois came to power, he provoked an uproar in Quebec when he announced that he had converted to separatism. The conversion allowed him to hold onto his job in Brussels and led one columnist to dub him “the rubber man of Quebec politics.”
Then again:
Some ethnic groups insist on living according to their own life codes, which run counter to our values and sometimes even our fundamental rights,” he wrote. The smooth functioning of Quebec society, he said, is harmed by “the increasingly large geographical concentration [in Montreal] of immigration from Muslim countries.” Among the solutions he proposed were a requirement that immigrants settle outside Montreal and a pre-immigration test to verify that a potential immigrant’s values conform with those of Quebec society. He also said such religious symbols as the Muslim headscarf and the Sikh kirpan should be confined to the “private sphere.” On the other hand, Cath-olic symbols such as the crucifix in the provincial legislature reflected Quebec’s “national identity” and should be preserved, he said.
But he’ll take it all back to land this job.
The real solution is to shut the thing down.
