Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Montreal Candidate Sorry for ‘Remove Jewish’ Hospital Name Rant

A Quebec candidate says she regrets comments she made two years ago calling for an end to circumcision and “Jewish” to be removed from a Montreal hospital.

The comments made by the ruling Parti Quebecois’ Tania Longpre, then a blogger for Journal de Montreal, in a Facebook exchange were made public this week.

Along with calling for an end to circumcision, Longpre said “Jewish” should be removed from name of Jewish General Hospital, a government-funded institution that would be affected by a bill proposed by the party’s leader banning public sector employees from wearing religious attire at work.

Jewish groups and other religious minorities in the province are worried about the proposed change to the Quebec Values Charter that was tabled in parliament Nov. 7 following weeks of debate. The proposal has been criticized for banning public sector workers from wearing kippahs, headscarves or turbans but allowing small Catholic symbols to be worn in the form of jewelry.

Longpre, who is running in a Montreal district, told a Quebec radio station that the comments do not reflect her current views.

“It’s what I thought two years ago but I think we can all evolve,” she said according to the Montreal Gazette. “Yes I regret having written this. I regret having thought this. Do I think this today? No.”

Longpre also wrote that hospital doctors and staff should be prohibited from having Hasidic sidecurls.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has asked Bernard Drainville, the Parti Quebecois minister for democratic institutions and the man behind the proposed charter, to reprimand Longpre.

Drainville said Longpre’s views are not reflective of the party or government.

“Before being a candidate she was a citizen, an individual who had freedom of speech. Now she’s a PQ candidate and she must endorse, as I think she did, the policies and positions that were taken by the PQ government so far,” Drainville said on Tuesday, according to CTV News.

Longpre’s comments, which were leaked to a Quebec City newspaper, also included disparaging remarks about Parti Quebecois leader and provincial premier Pauline Marois.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.