Campaign posters for a right-wing separatist candidate in Gouin are being replaced after being removed by police. The signs for Alexandre Cormier-Denis, candidate for the Parti Independantiste, were removed by police officers after getting complaints they were racist. The campaign signs show a woman with a toque on one side, and a woman wearing a face-covering niqab on the other, accompanied by a message: Choose your Quebec: Canadian multiculturalism? No thanks! Cormier-Denis says "multiculturalism is the object of multiple critiques in recent decades." He also said that while putting up the signs he was insulted by anglophones "who were probably unilingual and therefore incapable of reading the campaign sign." He initially thought they removed the signs, only to later learn they were taken down by police officers. However the signs are campaign signs and do not violate any hate laws, so they have since been replaced, even if they do anger several people. Muslim and Arab groups in Montreal are not surprised by the anti-immigration messages. "We weren't astonished. I mean, we know there are groups that are trying to organize and create political parties that are extreme right and specifically about the Muslim minorities," said Haroun Bouazzi of the Association of Muslims and Arabs for a secular Quebec. He said while Cormier-Denis' signs are legal, they are definitely anti-Muslim. "There is a problem and the problem is Islamophobia and racism and we have to face it," said Bouazzi. Cormier-Denis said he believes that all immigrants should assimilate "and not retain anything from their particular ethnocultural background." But people living in Gouin said that goes against everything they've learned and are trying to teach their children. "This fosters hate," said one man. The Gouin by-election takes place on May 29, 2017.
