Mario Dumont

Quebec Dept: As leader of the lately departed Action d mocratique du Qu bec, Dumont generated a wave of sup-port that nearly carried the party to power - and himself to the premiership - five years ago by feeding old-stock Quebecers' atavistic fears about their collective identity being undermined by cultural and religious accommodations made to immigrant groups. Most prominently targeted was the province's burgeoning Muslim population, according to Vancouver Sun. Halal is meat derived from animals slaughtered in accordance with Islamic ritual method, which differs only marginally - at least as it's done in this country - from standard slaughtering technique. It is much the same as Jewish kosher production, whereby the animals are killed by slitting their throats after being blessed by a rabbi. Dumont charged on his show that the halal method has become standard practice at some Quebec slaughterhouses, and that not all the meat they produce in this manner is labelled halal when packaged for sale. His complaint was prominently amplified by the Journal de Montr al, which proclaimed in a screaming front-page headline the following day: "We are all eating halal." Mario Dumont is certainly no Pierre Elliott Trudeau, of whom it was more famously said, but it seems that he too haunts us still. After a career-ending repudiation in the last provincial election, Dumont has recycled himself as a TV talking head, but he's still grabbing attention by stoking xenophobia. Last week he stirred up a controversy over the growing encroachment of halal meats on Quebec's food store shelves. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.