For the third time this campaign, PQ candidate Michelle Blanc found herself in a controversy surrounding social media.
On Saturday at a press conference outlining the party’s digital strategy, both Blanc and party leader Jean-Francois Lisee refused to comment on blog posts from 2007 that surfaced this week.
In the posts, Blanc asked why the Hasidic community shouldn’t relocate to “the middle of the woods, on the edge of civilization.”
The post came after Blanc expressed frustration that the Hasidic Jews in Outremont didn’t reply when she waved hello.
Despite the fact that it’s 11 years old, Jewish groups are condemning Blanc.
Last week, B’Nai Brith Canada called on the PQ to withdraw her candidacy.
Election opponents in Blanc’s riding of Mercier wanted her to clarify the comments, with New Democrat candidate Conrad Thompson calling them “outrageous and not something that we want to hear in this neighbourhood.”
It’s far from the only time Blanc, who wrote a book on social media decorum, has made headlines this campaign.
At the beginning of the campaign, she inferred that a critic of the PQ was a pedophile.
She’s also written tweets with the n- word, and joked that she “forgot to wish Hitler a happy birthday.”
Lisee has defended her every time.
“We firmly believe in the right to have a religion, to practice a religion, and the right to criticize a religion,” he said.
