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On Friday, the Green Party fired their candidate in the Quebec riding of Lévis-Lotbinière after he was labelled an ‘Islamophobe’ because he dared to criticize a mosque leader.

Luc Saint-Hilaire, who until recently was in Algeria giving professional training as part of a UN Empowerment Program for mostly veiled Muslim women, told me all he did was “urge an identified spokesperson of the Muslim community of Quebec to react after [an alleged] brutal aggression that shocked the entire region. … I consider that the silence of the spokesperson (otherwise very active on the public square in the name of the community) suggests a refusal to condemn the act of aggression.”

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Saint-Hilaire was referring to 39-year-old Quebec City cab driver Frej Haj Messaoud who was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault for allegedly setting his ex-wife on fire in Quebec City.

“I do not want to be at the centre of a controversy in the public square. I prefer that all this be forgotten as soon as possible,” Saint-Hilaire said, but emphasized, “I am not a racist and an Islamophobe.”