Quebec town with immigrant code went too far: Charest

Quebec Premier Jean Charest says a small town in the Mauricie has gone too far by adopting a code of conduct for immigrants.

Hérouxville made international headlines after its city council approved a long list of rules that, among other edicts, forbids women from covering their faces in schools, bans female circumcision, and explains the tradition of Christmas trees.

The town became the focal point of a provincewide debate on how Quebec should accommodate immigrants with different customs and religious traditions.

At first, Charest called the Hérouxville code an isolated incident. But on Thursday he changed his tone, sending a strong message via Health Minister Philippe Couillard.

"In my view, [it is] a very exaggerated phenomenon, that is linked with ignorance," Couillard said at a Thursday press conference announcing Quebec's expanded drug plan.

Charest is in Paris for a climate change meeting.

A handful of towns in the region near Trois-Rivières have said they want to create similar codes to the one in Hérouxville. Charest dispatched his minister in the region, Julie Boulet, tomeet with local mayors and discuss their plans.

Opposition leaders were quick to criticizehowQuebec's Liberal government handledthe reasonable accommodation debate.

Hérouxville leaders had no choice but to create the code because Quebec has its head in the sand when it comes to the delicate subject of accommodating immigrants, said Mario Dumont, leader of Action démocratique du Québec.

"Anybody who looks at the way things are evolving in the last year or so, it's obvious that things are slipping."

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said Charest is responsible for allowing the debate to escalate without any checks.

"I think that we have to take that more seriously, and we have to take time, and discuss it with those people."