Mr. Speaker, after a week-long wait, Ms. Hafsa Zinaï Koudil, an Algerian filmmaker, finally set foot in Montreal. Ms. Koudil will now be able to attend the festival "Vues d'Afrique" and present her movie "Le Démon au féminin" in which she decries the intolerance and abuses of fundamentalism in Algeria.
The Minister of Immigration initially refused to grant an entry visa to Ms. Koudil despite having approved a special visa for a right-wing American activist one week earlier. Following vigorous pressure exerted by cultural and women's groups, supported by the official opposition, the minister finally granted the required visa.
Please be assured, Ms. Koudil, that despite the deplorable insensitivity some of our politicians have shown you, there is a lot of support here for the fight you have taken up.