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Montreal — The Quebec college of physicians has issued a warning to doctors to stop performing virginity tests, a practice linked to bridal purity and family honour. Gynecological exams for virginity certificates contravene the profession’s code of ethics on several grounds, including breaching patient confidentiality, said Charles Bernard, president of the Collège des médecins, in an interview. The practise is outrageous, repugnant, irrelevant and unacceptable, he said. “Imagine a doctor who does a gynecological examination with the sole purpose of … it goes beyond the imagination. And it’s degrading to women,” Dr. Bernard said. The College was responding to a...

There’s a heated debate in Canada over Québec’s proposal to ban symbols of religious faith such as Jewish skullcaps, Sikh turbans, Muslim head scarves and large crucifixes from public work places. The proposed ban is part of what the Québec government calls its “charter of values.” It has divided the province of 8.1 million and mobilized the opposition. …

Quebec’s separatist government is betting on broad popular support with a proposal that prohibits public workers from wearing headscarves, skullcaps and other religious symbols, yet it is dividing the movement that advocates independence from Canada. The proposal, unveiled by the ruling Parti Quebecois last week, plays with the explosive issue of minority rights in a part of Canada, a country that prides itself as being a tapestry of immigrants rather than a U.S.-style melting pot. The government’s proposed Charter of Quebec Values would ban teachers, doctors and other public workers from wearing highly visible religious symbols, including yarmulkes, headscarves and...

OTTAWA -- A 16-year-old girl who claims she was forced into prostitution said she was plied with Goldschlager and beer to the point just sitting on the couch became troublesome. "I think I fell off the couch," the teen told detectives a month after the traumatic June 2012 night. Another girl took her to the bathroom, and darkness engulfed her. When she awoke, she was naked and lying in a bathtub. She wasn't alone. The girl who had invited her over and led her to the bathroom was sitting on the toilet, taking photos. "Do you want to make money?"...

A move by Quebec’s ruling Parti Québécois to ban public workers in the province from wearing ostentatious symbols has drawn fire from other Canadian leaders, and even created an internal division within the group. The so-called “Charter of Quebec Values” forbids state employees from wearing large Christian crosses, Jewish skullcaps or Muslim headscarves to work. …

As two dramas about the conflict vie for attention at TIFF, normally outspoken actors and filmmakers on hand for the fest remain conspicuously mum on the subject. The conflict in Syria and the increasing likelihood of Western involvement is occupying hearts and minds at this year’s festival. Still, when it comes to Hollywood voices publicly weighing in on the debate over U.S. intervention in the territory, the silence has been deafening. A number of high-profile Hollywood names on hand for the festival, who’ve been outspoken in the past on U.S. military intervention, have been uncharacteristically quiet on the issue. THR...

The Quebec province in Canada has adopted a new Charter of Quebec Values, prohibiting skullcaps and other religious garments to be worn during public service. According to the charter, employees in the public service system -including doctors, nurses, teachers, and government officials – will not be allowed to wear any religious symbols or garments while working, including a Star of David, cross, kippot, burqa or turban. According to Ynet, leaders in the Jewish community, including Lawyer and Political advisor Eric Maldoff who lead the delegation and Jewish Federation president David Cape, met with Bernard Dranville, the Canadian minister responsible for...

A meteor or comet impact near Quebec heaved a rain of hot melted rock along North America's Atlantic Coast about 12,900 years ago, a new study claims. Scientists have traced the geochemical signature of the BB-sized spherules that rained down back to their source, the 1.5-billion-year-old Quebecia terrane in northeastern Canada near the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. At the time of the impact, the region was covered by a continental ice sheet, like Antarctica and Greenland are today. "We have provided evidence for an impact on top of the ice sheet," said study co-author Mukul Sharma, a geochemist at Dartmouth...

A meteor or comet impact near Quebec heaved a rain of hot melted rock along North America's Atlantic Coast about 12,900 years ago, a new study claims. Scientists have traced the geochemical signature of the BB-sized spherules that rained down back to their source, the 1.5-billion-year-old Quebecia terrane in northeastern Canada near the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. At the time of the impact, the region was covered by a continental ice sheet, like Antarctica and Greenland are today. Around this time, a global cooling began and the big animals in North America all vanished. Their human hunters, the Clovis people,...

American greenies imagine they can save the planet by stopping construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, but in the real world they will expose Mother Gaia (and human beings) to greater harm by forcing more oil to be transported by rail. Pipelines are far safer than rail transportation, as we are reminded by the horror that engulfed much of the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec in flames. Thirteen people are known dead, but as many as 50 are missing, while charred bodies still are being pulled from the ruins. This reality should haunt the nightmares of greenies, people generally given to...

CNN) -- The chairman of the company whose driverless train barreled into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic and unleashed a deadly inferno told a Montreal newspaper he believes it had been tampered with. "We have evidence of this," Ed Burkhardt said in an interview published by the Montreal Gazette. "But this is an item that needs further investigation. We need to talk to some people we believe to have knowledge of this." The company did not immediately return phone calls from CNN about the report. Burkhardt is the chief executive officer and president of Rail World, the parent company...

LAC-MÉGANTIC, Que. — As the confirmed death toll climbed here Monday, the head of the company whose runaway train was at the centre of this tragedy says he is certain a locomotive was tampered with. “We have evidence of this,” said Ed Burkhardt, chairman of The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. “But this is an item that needs further investigation. We need to talk to some people we believe have knowledge of this.” ... The ensuing crash and explosions destroyed a stunning swath of the downtown and are now being blamed for 13 confirmed deaths. With the number of people...

LAC-MEGANTIC, Que. — About 40 people are considered missing after the spectacular blaze and explosions that razed much of Lac-Megantic, increasing the likelihood that the number of fatalities could soar from the current official death toll of five. “I can tell you that we have met a lot of people….and what I can tell you is that about 40 people are considered missing,” Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet told a news conference. “We have to be careful with that number because it could go up or down.” It is the first time police have gone public with an estimate...

A train carrying crude oil derailed in the town of Lac-Megantic, Que., early Saturday morning, sending giant flames into the air and prompting a mass evacuation. At least 1,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes in Lac-Megantic, which is located about 250 kilometres east of Montreal. A number of the train’s 73 cars exploded, causing a fire that spread to several of buildings in the community.

Best Buy's latest promotion has provoked an angry response on social media, but the company is defending its decision to recognize what it calls the "Moving Day holiday" in Quebec. Many people have been surprised to see a flyer promoting a "Moving Day Sale" in Quebec on July 1. The same promotion is being advertised in the rest of the country as a "Canada Day Sale."

The Canadian Soccer Association says it has suspended a provincial association over its refusal to let turban-wearing children play. … Quebec’s federation says it’s concerned about safety and points out that the rules of the world governing body, FIFA, don’t specifically allow turbans. Critics of the Quebec decision point out that FIFA’s rules don’t explicitly ban turbans, either. …

SAINT-JEROME, QC - A school board north of Montreal has launched an internal investigation after school staff strip searched 28 high school students to find a cellphone during a year-end exam. The board admits that staff at Cap-Jeunesse high school in Saint-Jerome, QC, "lacked judgment" for asking 28 Grade 10 students to remove their clothes when a phone went missing last week. The students were ordered to put their phones on a teacher's desk to prevent cheating during a math exam but one phone was unaccounted for, prompting teachers to order the strip search. "They put us in a small...

Chiheb Esseghaier, the younger of two men charged in the al Qaeda train plot, is a Tunisian-born PhD student at a Université du Québec nanotechnology lab who was threatened with expulsion for his disruptive behaviour and strict religious views that alienated his colleagues.

Canadian authorities announced Monday they have broken up an Al Qaeda-linked terror plot to attack a passenger train as it crossed over a bridge in the Toronto area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that two suspects have been arrested on terrorism charges. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, who live in greater Montreal and Toronto -- were conspiring to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against Via Rail, but posed no immediate threat to the public. "It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan told reporters at a news conference. Read more:...

Canada to announce arrests after thwarting "major terrorist attack":CBCR Reuters – 19 mins ago TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police and intelligence agencies are to announce multiple arrests on Monday after an operation to thwart a "major terrorist attack," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday, citing unnamed "highly placed" sources.