Anjou councillor booted from party following headscarf comments

Anjou borough Coun.Lynne Shandhas been expelled from her municipal partyfollowing her derisiveremarks about being treated by a doctor who wears aheadscarf.

Luis Miranda, the borough mayor, said the decision was made by his party,quipe Anjou, onWednesday morning. Shand will sit as an independent.

"We reached the conclusion that she could no longer sit as a member of the party," Mirandasaid.

Miranda had originally resisted taking action over the controversy. On Sunday,he said voters will decide in the next election if they want her to stay in her role. Shandwas elected in 2017by a margin of 400 votes.

"She has a right to have her own opinions or whatever, but as an elected official I think she should have some kind of moderation on what she's saying and what she's doing," Miranda said at the time.

Shand has been embroiled in controversy since complaining on social media on the weekend aboutbeing treated by a doctor wearing a hijab.

"Yesterday I had an emergency ophthalmology exam, and who was the ophthalmologist? A woman in a veil... Grrrrrr," Shand wrote on Facebook.

"If it hadn't been an emergency I would have refused to be treated by her. I'm angry because it's really the Islamification of our country."

Shand issued a statement Monday apologizing to anyone who may have been offended by herearlier comments.

Formal complaint filed

On Tuesday, the speaker of Montreal city council, Cathy Wong, filed a formal complaint with the QuebecMunicipal Commission, a provincial body that oversees municipalities,over what she called Shand's"xenophobic remarks."

On her Facebook page, Wong wrote that she was taking action"as city council speakerand a city councillor, but first and foremostas a citizen of Montreal, because her remarks are inexcusable."

Wong observed that 10 per cent of Anjou's population is Muslim.

She saidShand'ssocial media post was"all the more shocking since it was published 10 days after the terroristattackin Christchurch and a month after Montreal's City Hall marked the tragic attack on a mosque inQuebecCity."

Wong's statement referred tothe code of ethics for Montreal city councillors, whichdeclares that citizens must be treated with respect and without discrimination.

She saidShand's comments cast doubt on the equality of services she offers to her constituents.

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plantehas also askedthe city's ethics commissioner to look into the matter.