Quebec to ban public prayer in sweeping new secularism law

Bill 9 would outlaw prayer and face coverings in public institutions, sparking fears it targets Muslims in Canada

Quebec says it will intensify its crackdown on public displays of religion in a sweeping new law that critics say pushes Canadian provinces into private spaces and disproportionately affects Muslims.

Bill 9, introduced by the governing Coalition Avenir Québec on Thursday, bans prayer in public institutions, including in colleges and universities. It also bans communal prayer on public roads and in parks, with the threat of fines of C$1,125 for groups in contravention of the prohibition. Short public events with prior approval are exempt.

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Case of a single vote that decided a federal election in Canada sparks uproar

Legal teams are midway through a hearing over whether one vote truly swayed an election in a Montreal suburb

The case of a single vote which determined the outcome of a federal election in Canada risks sending the “disastrous message” to voters that “some votes count more than others”, says the lawyer of a former MP as a court considers whether to void the controversial election and hold a new vote.

Legal teams in Quebec are midway through a three-day hearing over whether a single vote – and an administrative error – truly swayed a recent election in a suburb north of Montreal.

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Canadian man fined for submitting AI hallucinations as part of legal defense

Jean Laprade ordered to pay $3,500 in legal saga of ‘hijacked planes’, Interpol red alerts and ‘inappropriate use’ of AI

A Quebec man has been ordered to pay C$5,000 (US$3,562) for submitting artificial intelligence hallucinations as part of his legal defense, a move the judge warned was “highly reprehensible” and threatened to undermine integrity in the legal system.

Justice Luc Morin of Quebec superior court levied the fine on Jean Laprade in a decision released on 1 October, capping a legal saga the judge said “contains several elements worthy of a successful movie script”, including a “hijacked plane passing through several complacent airports”, Interpol red alerts and the “inappropriate use of artificial intelligence” by Laprade.

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Canadian police seize largest ever weapons cache in terrorism inquiry

RCMP arrested and charged four people who were trying to form an ‘anti-government militia’ and capture land

Police in Canada have arrested and charged four people, including active military members, who they allege were “planning to create anti-government militia” and to “forcibly take possession of land” in the province of Quebec.

The scope of material uncovered by police, including explosives and assault rifles, marks the largest weapons cache ever seized as part of terrorism investigation.

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Canada’s Liberals inch toward majority, but one vote could decide key contest

Quebec recount awarded seat to Liberal challenger by one vote, but a missing ballot could throw contest into disarray

Canada’s Liberal party has inched closer to a majority government after a judicial recount found the party had won an electoral district by just a single vote. But a voter has also claimed her ballot wasn’t counted, throwing the result once more into disarray.

Officials at Elections Canada at the weekend finished a recount for the Quebec district of Terrebonne, where the incumbent Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné appeared to have beaten her Liberal challenger Tatiana Auguste.

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Hundreds of thousands of Canadians face power outages due to ice storm

More than 300,000 without power as storm, expected to continue overnight, pummels Ottawa, Quebec and Ontario

More than 300,000 Canadians faced power outages in parts of Ontario on Sunday as an ice storm pummeled the region over the weekend, according to electricity provider Hydro One.

Environment Canada issued winter storm warnings for freezing rain in Ottawa, parts of Quebec and Ontario, with the risk of snow mixed with or transitioning to ice pellets expected to continue until Monday morning in some regions.

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Canadians protest imports of US toxic waste amid Trump tariff war

Move to expand landfill for US hazardous waste stirs disputes between leaders in Quebec and Montreal suburb

The proposed expansion of a Quebec landfill that accepts hazardous waste from the United States has ignited a turf war between the Quebec provincial government and local leaders, who say they oppose putting US trash into a local peat bog.

Local leaders are protesting the move – saying the state is capitulating to a US company in the midst of a tariff war between Canada and the United States.

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Racial profiling is systemic problem in Montreal police, judge rules

Advocates say profiling ‘characterized many arrests’ as judge awards millions in damages in class-action lawsuit

Racial profiling is a systemic problem in the Montreal police force, a Quebec judge has ruled, as she awarded damages in a class action lawsuit that advocates call a “decision that meets with reality”.

Justice Dominique Poulin found that the city bore responsibility for racial profiling committed by its police officers and was obliged to compensate those affected.

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Quebec separation re-enters political debate thanks to TikTok-friendly leader

Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon speaking loudly and often after party win over Coalition Avenir Québec

Quebec separation is back among the living.

Years after many considered it dead, the prospect of removing Canada’s second-most populous province from the federation has re-entered the political debate. And though Quebecers aren’t exactly marching in the streets in its support as they once did, they are certainly taking another look at the Parti Québécois.

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Justin Trudeau condemns shots fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal

Canadian prime minister says ‘attacking each other is not who we are’ after clashes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups

Justin Trudeau has condemned recent violence in Canada after shots were fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal and clashes broke out between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students at a university in the city.

Police on Thursday said they were investigating overnight shootings at two Jewish schools in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood after staff reported finding bullet holes in the front doors of the schools.

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Quebec judge gives go-ahead for lawsuit over sterilisation of Indigenous women

Three doctors accused of performing or coercing women into sterilisation procedures

A judge in Quebec has given the go-ahead for a class action lawsuit over the forced sterilisation of Indigenous women in the Canadian province.

Two Atikamekw women known publicly by only their initials, UT and MX, brought the lawsuit against three doctors they accuse of performing or coercing women into sterilisation procedures in a small, remote town in northern Quebec.

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Weather tracker: Severe storms rock Australia and Canada

Tropical cyclone brews off the Kimberley while freezing rain causes chaos in Quebec and Ontario

At the weekend a tropical low that was situated in the Timor Sea moved west-south-west into waters north of the Kimberley, Western Australia. Deepening as it moved, the low developed into a tropical cyclone on Sunday night that brought gale-force winds of up to 56 mph (90km/h) to the coast. Squally thunderstorms across northern parts of the region produced strong winds and heavy rain.

The tropical cyclone is forecast to reach category 3 by Tuesday. From Wednesday it is expected to turn south, prompting the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to warn that a significant risk of further instability could steer the storm south-east into central or eastern Pilbara, or western Kimberley. Given sea surface temperatures will be 30-32C (86-90F), the cyclone is expected to deepen to a category 4, with some models forecasting central pressure as low as 910hPa.

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Canada police arrest ‘pedophile hunting’ group over child abuse images

Quebec authorities announced six people were in custody for criminal harassment, intimidation and forcible confinement

Police in Canada have arrested members of a vigilante “pedophile-hunting” group, charging them with distribution of child abuse images, amid frustration over the group’s controversial tactics.

Quebec police announced on Thursday that six people had been arrested as part of an investigation into a group that had drawn complaints from the public.

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Quebec moves to end Canadian elected officials’ oath to King Charles

‘It is a relic from the past’: strong opposition to oath from three political parties of French-speaking province

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, said that his government would introduce legislation next week to end elected officials’ required oath to Britain’s King Charles, as pressure mounts in the Canadian province to cut such ties with the monarchy.

Fresh legislation from the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) follows a separate bill introduced on Thursday by the left-leaning Québec Solidaire party that would allow elected officials to just take an oath to the people of Quebec.

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Canada court rules random traffic stops are racist and unconstitutional

A Quebec judge invalidates the police power to pull over drivers without cause, concluding they violate country’s charter

A Canadian court has ruled that random traffic stops violate the country’s charter, striking down the “unbounded power” of police in searches that often amount to racial profiling.

A Quebec superior judge ruled on Tuesday that police cannot pull over drivers without cause.

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Quebec separatist urges Canada to cut ties with ‘incredibly racist’ monarchy

Yves-François Blanchet, leader of Bloc Québécois, says ‘slave-driven’ British monarchy is ‘archaic’ and ‘humiliating’

The leader of Canada’s Quebec separatist party has renewed calls for the country to sever its ties with the “incredibly racist” and “slave-driven” British monarchy ahead of the coronation of King Charles III.

The Bloc Québécois leader, Yves-François Blanchet, tabled a motion on Tuesday, widely seen as purely symbolic, in the House of Commons.

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Quebec moves to protect French language and restrict use of English

Premier says ‘we are proud to be a francophone nation in North America’ but English-speaking critics threaten legal action

Quebec’s government has successfully passed sweeping French language protections that critics warn will reshape all aspects of public life.

Bill 96, which passed on Tuesday afternoon in the province’s national assembly, will require new immigrants and refugees to communicate with provincial officials exclusively in French six months after arriving or face a loss of services. The bill also limits the use of English in the legal system and caps enrolment at the province’s English-language schools.

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Canada’s ‘maple syrup heist’ thief must repay millions for sweet stolen goods

Perpetrators siphoned syrup from barrels stored in Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserves and replaced it with water

Richard Vallières’s plan to make millions of dollars was deceptively simple: secretly drain the province of Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve and then sell the illicit product.

But the Quebec man’s daring theft fell short after police were tipped off and he and his accomplices landed in jail.

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Poutine not Putin: classic Quebec dish off the menu in France and Canada

French restaurant threatened for selling fries, cheese and gravy snack that sounds like the Russian leader

Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine has prompted demonstrations around the world, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets to condemn the war.

But anger towards the Russian leader has also ensnared an unlikely casualty: a French-Canadian delicacy of potato fries, cheese curds and gravy.

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Quebec health tax for unvaccinated residents prompts fierce Covid debate

  • ‘Health contribution’ for those who do not want Covid vaccine
  • Critics warn move could target vulnerable members of society

Quebec’s announcement that it will impose a healthcare tax on unvaccinated residents has prompted a fierce debate, as the province looks to salvage its crumbing healthcare system amid the latest wave of the coronavirus.

The Canadian province’s premier, François Legault, said on Tuesday that those who had chosen to remain unvaccinated would pay a “health contribution”, acknowledging growing friction in the province as the unvaccinated draw on a greater share of the scarce medical resources.

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