Quebec mayor won’t reintroduce Muslim cemetery project

MONTREAL — The mayor of the Quebec town whose citizens rejected a Muslim cemetery project says he isn’t ready to make residents relive the experience. Saint-Apollinaire Mayor Bernard Ouellet said Monday he doesn’t have plans to invoke a new Quebec law giving municipalities more power in order to reintroduce the project to voters. A proposal to establish the Quebec City area’s first Muslim-run cemetery was defeated in a referendum Sunday by a vote of 19 to 16.

Leaders in the city’s Muslim community have said they plan to ask politicians to use a new law permitting municipalities to forgo referendums on development projects in order to bring the proposal once again before citizens.

Ouellet says a minority of Saint-Apollinaire voters have been stressed over the past few months after being solicited from all sides. The land for the proposed cemetery is located in a sparsely populated area 35 kilometres southwest of Quebec City.

Ouellet says he understands the frustration of the Muslim community but he isn’t interested in using the new law to reintroduce the project.