Talk about a bad idea in rebranding.

The PQ needs better marketing, for sure. Well, they need many things -- including a sense of decency.

The new name for the values charter is downright silly: The charter affirming the values of secularism, state religious neutrality, and the equality of men and women and the framing of accommodation requests.

Of course, the PQ has never done much by way of making things simple -- after months of debates, marches and disintegrating social peace. After the Quebec human rights commission launched a full frontal assault against the charter. After three former PQ premiers have dismissed it, and legal experts have deemed it unconstitutional, the government still has not learned a thing. And, it hasn’t listened.

If anything, the PQ has made its proposed charter of values even more hardline and unacceptable. It even wants to extend the legislation’s reach to private firms doing business with the government.

Muslim women say the situation in Quebec is worse now than it was in the days and months following 9-11. Some women say they are frightened to walk alone. There is no crisis of accommodation in Quebec, there are no hordes of hijab wearing women trying to convert Quebecois children to Islam working in daycares.

Let's be honest here, this legislation is not about secularism or religious neutrality. It is a bill whose main goal is to restrict the rights of Muslim, and in particular Muslim women. Unfortunately, cultivating that fear plays well with the PQ base and others.

But this will never see a vote in the national assembly. It is designed solely as a major plank in the PQ platform in the next Quebec election campaign. It is politics at its worst -- playing with minority rights is shameful. And frankly, it's sickening.

Poor Voter Turnout

What a lousy turnout for the election. You would think that people would care a little more. If you crunch the numbers, Denis Coderre was elected by about 13 percent of eligible voters in the city of Montreal. Not much of a mandate for sure.

Montrealers, it seems, are downright skeptical that anything will ever change. Reestablishing trust will be a long and difficult journey.

Our new mayor has his work cut out for him. Cleaning up city hall may be one thing, but making people care is quite another.

Lest We Forget

Monday is Remembrance Day, a day when we should all take a moment to reflect. It is important that this day is never lost in the fog of history.

I worry sometimes that we aren't doing enough to pass on the importance of this to our children. Many paid a price so that we can now enjoy the freedom and way of life we have today -- something so many take for granted that they don’t even bother to vote.

On August 20th, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the British parliament. His words ring true through the ages for all of those who put everything on the line.

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," he said.

Take a moment to remember and if you see a vet. Say thanks. Lest we forget