Quebec: Anti-Catholicism Rears its Head in Campaign

"My problem is that Opus Dei is a rather secret society... Those people certainly share an ideology, a narrow ideology, that doesn't correspond at all to the modern times in Quebec."

OTTAWA,Canada (LifeSiteNews) - Bloc Quebecois party leader Gille Duceppe has issued comments attacking the Conservative Party, calling Prime Minister Stephen Harper a "right -wing ideologue" and saying that the party's running of an MP candidate who is a member of the Catholic group, Opus Dei, is proof of the Conservative Party's narrow-mindedness.

Today, referring to Nicole Charbonneau Barron, who is the Conservative candidate in the South Shore Montreal riding of St. Bruno-St. Hubert, and is a member of the Catholic group Opus Dei, Duceppe said, "My problem is that Opus Dei is a rather secret society... Those people certainly share an ideology, a narrow ideology, that doesn't correspond at all to the modern times in Quebec."

The Opus Dei website describes the group as a "personal prelature of the Catholic Church that helps people seek holiness in their work and ordinary activities." Being a Catholic organization, the group denounces contraception, abortion and same-sex "marriage."

"I'm not saying they don't have the right [to run]. What I am saying is that those people are against a lot of things that are generally accepted in Quebec," continued Duceppe.
In a CTV interview, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew responded to Duceppe's remarks, saying of the BQ leader, "He cannot tolerate people who think differently. He's been trying to shut up the strong Quebec voices in Ottawa in order to promote his separation plans."

The Montreal Gazette reported that over the weekend in Montreal at a national council meeting, Duceppe focused specifically on PM Harper, comparing him to US President George Bush and saying he has the intention of compromising a woman's "right to choose."

"Like Mr. Bush's Republicans, Stephen Harper's Conservatives lobby for the free circulation of fire arms, for censorship and they would like to withdraw the acquired rights of women...It is that ideology that Stephen Harper would like to impose without reserve on Canada and on Quebec in obtaining a majority."

Harper, however, has consistently chosen to distance himself from the abortion debate, even when confronted with a recent invocation by Liberal party leader Stephan Dion to state his position on the polarizing issue.

The Conservative Party on the whole, under Harper's leadership, has consistently avoided any confrontation on any of the most controversial social issues - particularly abortion and same-sex "marriage."

Last month Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced that the Conservative Government would introduce legislation to bolster penalties for those who assault pregnant women - a move which has been labeled as an attempt to strike down Conservative MP Ken Epp's Unborn Victims of Crime bill. Epps' Bill C-484, unlike Nicholson's new, less controversial bill, recognized a wanted fetus as a separate entity in the case of a violent attack on a pregnant mother.

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Some abortion extremists, however, have denounced the bill as an attempt to curb abortion "rights" in Canada, despite the fact that the bill specifically states that the bill would have no effect upon abortion. Supporters of the bill have said they believe the Conservative Party fronted the new bill in an effort to avoid making abortion a campaign issue in the upcoming Canadian election

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