Tuesday, January 2, 2021

QUEBEC -- The Parti Qu�b�cois is at a crossroads, and this year its leader will be pressed to make the most important decision of his political career: how and when to make a move toward sovereignty for Quebec.

Lucien Bouchard has been reluctant to push the sovereignty agenda, saying Quebeckers are not ready for another referendum. Impatient with the Quebec Premier, some high-ranking PQ members are preparing for a confrontation at a party meeting in late February.

The first signs of the growing dissent came less than a week after a PQ national council meeting in December. It dealt with the issue that has propelled the sovereignty movement since its inception: language.

At a three-hour, Dec. 8 meeting with the party executive, Mr. Bouchard refused to cave in to demands for a tougher language law that would require francophone and allophone students to attend French-language community colleges after obtaining a secondary-school diploma.

Children of francophone and immigrant parents are required to attend French-language elementary and secondary schools, but can attend an English-language college. In Quebec, a two-year college diploma is mandatory to pursue a university degree.

Studies show attendance in French-language colleges has declined by about 1 per cent a year since 1995. The studies also conclude that students from ethnic communities who attend French-language colleges are more inclined to adopt French as their principle language than do those attending English-language colleges. Based on these studies, many PQ regional riding association presidents and members of the executive proposed to make it mandatory for all francophone and non-anglophone students to attend French-language colleges.

Mr. Bouchard refused, saying the proposal would be too coercive and would require the province to use the notwithstanding clause to override the Canadian Constitution. He also said francophone parents wouldn't like it.

"Besides, how will I explain that in Boston?" Mr. Bouchard said to the party executive, according to one high-ranking official.

How Quebec language laws are perceived in the United States and in the business community has often influenced Mr. Bouchard's actions.

In the midst of this divisive debate for tougher language laws, a prominent PQ member added to the controversy with comments about Jews and claims that there is an anti-sovereignty ethnic vote in Montreal. Yves Michaud, 70, wants the party's nomination in the Montreal riding of Mercier, where a spring by-election is scheduled.

The Quebec National Assembly condemned his remarks as "unacceptable."

Already at odds with his party over language, Mr. Bouchard decided, without consultation, to support the condemnation motion. He said he could not lead a party that appeared intolerant or discriminatory toward Quebec's ethnic communities and added that he opposed Mr. Michaud's candidacy.

The decision made Mr. Michaud a martyr. Influential separatists, including former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau, said Mr. Bouchard and the National Assembly had no right to condemn Mr. Michaud because he is not an MNA. While it might be Mr. Bouchard's right as party leader to reject Mr. Michaud's nomination, Mr. Parizeau said the Premier was wrong to use the National Assembly to rid the PQ of someone who threatened to cause embarrassment.

For his handling of the Michaud affair and the language issue, Mr. Bouchard has been called too authoritarian and unyielding. His leadership has been questioned within the party and the sovereignty movement in general.

"Most of the members are shocked and angered by his attitude. They don't recognize the party any more and they don't recognize themselves in the party any more," Mercier riding president Andre Reny told Le Devoir last week.

As the internal rift grows wider, party membership is declining. One insider estimates the PQ has fewer than 80,000 card-carrying members, far below the more than 100,000 of only a few years ago. The latest membership drive failed to attract a significant number of new members.

For Mr. Bouchard to quell the brewing protest, he will have to offer at the February meeting a clear plan of action aimed at achieving sovereignty. Failure to deliver could split the party and perhaps damage Mr. Bouchard's leadership beyond repair.
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-the patriot-

No, I don't see anything wrong with anyone not forgetting where they came from or keeping their culture strong. And, no, you're not a mad bomber or FLQ nutcase (otherwise, they wouldn't have let you into the military). I agree that what the FLQ did was morally and fundamentally wrong. Killing an elected member of Provincial Cabinet (Pierre Laporte) and taking a British diplomat (James Cross) hostage isn't my idea of crumpets and tea with the Industrialist Anglos in Mount Royal. Just like yourself being a francophone, there are many immigrants who live in Quebec who believe in Canada just like you. Likewise, nobody wants a referendum from a man who can't even stand on one leg.

well, french-canadian guys, that i've been around (and i'm 16, so you can totally disregard experience as a factor here) are pretty cool, they know how to have a good time =)

now I realize some people don't like the french part of canada because they tried to seperate in 1995, which i can't totally blame them, i generally look down on people with no pride in their country (call it a character flaw)
--
"french candians have always been the Cheap Labor for the English industrials"

man, your pretty good at history, check up back around pre-confederation times, there's a little thing about France and Britian, well, to make a short story even shorter, Britian won.

Quebec isn't a shining example of all that is good, during both WW1 and WW2, Quebec had fought the conscription saying that these wars are an "english matter".

And Mcdonalds is not just into Quebec.

"What Michaud said, is that the Jews are not the only to have been martyrised"

Yes, because use canadians pulled french-canadians out of there houses and rounded them up to execute them, yes it's a daily occurance here in good ole Canada. Michuad is a moran.

"1.The C-20 law is anti-democratic.What the hell is that? More than 50+1 %???All we've been fighting and dying for, for the last century, Chr�tien just threw it away."

Fighting and dying huh? so when did the civil war happen? let me let you in on a little secret, only between you and me, 84 percent of French canadians now want to stay in Canada.

You say you want to join the Canadian Army, but you want to have quebec seperated from Canada.

Quebec is a part of Canada, we are a team, don't screw around with the team man.

another thing, don't get so pissed off at patriot =)

end rant

Well said Travis

Musd - As one from the west it seemds to me Quebekers (and Ontario) take a fairly myopic view of Canada. Don't forget Canada streches from the Atlantic to the Pacific not Quecec City to Hamilton.