provincial politician. She was the first black female MNA and the youngest, as well as the first black
cabinet minister
A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, â ...
James's father and mother are Canadian citizens who emigrated from
St. Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerin ...
and
St. Vincent
Saint Vincent may refer to:
People Saints
* Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr
* Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia
* Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...
, respectively. She grew up in Montreal's
West Island
The West Island () is the unofficial name given to the cities, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. It is generally considered to consist of the Lakeshore municipalities of Dorval, Pointe-Cla ...
area and went to a
francophone
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
primary school. James says she first got involved in politics and with the
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
in 2004.
She was a political adviser at the Ministry of Health and Social Services and was the political aid of a former MNA for the Nelligan riding. She also collaborated in a local program which helped youths with learning difficulties.
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
held on September 20, 2004. She was re-elected in the
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012 and the fifth deputy prime minister of Canada in 1993. Charest was elected to the House of ...
in 2007 following the initiative of Jean Charest to represent Anglophones and Cultural Communities in his Cabinet. After Tony Tomassi's sudden resignation in 2010, she was given an additional role in cabinet as Family Minister. In August 2010, she retained the Family portfolio in a cabinet shuffle, but lost her culture and immigration duties to
Kathleen Weil
Kathleen Weil is a Canadians, Canadian politician and lawyer. Weil was elected to represent the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (provincial electoral district), Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2008 Quebec general ele ...
have full control over its immigration, James replied that under a bilateral agreement with the national government, Quebec already has all the power it needs to select the economic immigrants it wants.
James publicly entered the controversy over
reasonable accommodation A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, physic ...
by stating that she stood by her decree to bar students from covering their faces with niqabs or
burqa
A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...
s in French-language classes. She claimed that "There is no ambiguity about this question. If you want to assist in ttendour classes, if you want to integrate into Quebec society, here are our values. We want to see your face." James's department decreed that Naema Ahmed leave CEGEP St. Laurent when Ahmed declined to remove her niqab during lessons.
However, after James left provincial politics, she stated that her thinking on the niqab has evolved. The district of Saint Laurent, QC, where she sought a federal candidacy in a by-election, was 17-per-cent Muslim in the 2011 Census of Canada. On February 24, 2014, James announced she was leaving politics, and would not seek re-election in the 2014 election.
On February 12, 2017, James confirmed on Twitter that would be seeking the Liberal Party of Canada's nomination for the Saint-Laurent federal electoral district. A 26-year-old high school teacher, however, defeated James for the Liberal nomination in that riding.
Emmanuella Lambropoulos
Emmanuella Lambropoulos (born September 12, 1990) is a Canadian politician serving as the Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament (MP) for Saint-Laurent (electoral district), Saint-Laurent since 2017.CBC political programs, including as one of four former National Assembly ministers on the noonhour
CBC Radio Canada
CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...
and as a member of the "Power Panel" on
Power & Politics
''Power & Politics'' is a Canadian television news program focused on national politics, which airs live daily on CBC News Network from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time weekdays and as a syndicated podcast. The program normally originates from the ...
, an English-language political program on
CBC News Network
CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...