Raif Badawi

: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz MONTREAL - The Quebec government said it would accelerate immigration procedures for Raif Badawi, the blogger in Saudi Arabia who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes but was spared Friday, according to Brandon Sun. It was feared his punishment would resume after the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia upheld the sentence imposed on the blogger, but the Amnesty International office in Paris said it had received confirmation the punishment was postponed. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says the prime minister should speak out in the case of a blogger in Saudi Arabia who has been sentenced to a brutal flogging. Badawi, 31, is not a Canadian citizen, although his wife and children fled Saudi Arabia in 2012 and settled in Sherbrooke, Que., in 2013. Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said the province will give Badawi an immigration selection certificate on humanitarian grounds. Ensaf Haidar, Badawi wife, took to Twitter on Friday to call again for an end to her husband punishment. "I repeat my appeal to his majesty King Salman to pardon my husband ... and stop his flogging," she wrote. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.