The Parti Québécois (PQ) is withdrawing from its team two candidates who have made comments over the years attacking the intelligence of women who wear the veil and associating Islam with the decline of democracy.
The leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, made the announcement on Friday from Tadoussac, after having given the opportunity to Pierre Vanier, candidate in Rousseau, and Catherine Provost, candidate in L’Assomption, to give their ” Version of events “. “I had to draw a line,” said the PQ leader on Friday.
In publications unearthed by The Journal of Quebec, Mr. Vanier said of women who wear the veil that they “miss 15 minutes of not cooked in the noggin”. “Islam is Islam everywhere. It’s the same religion, the same laws, and the same goals. Dominate and crush the infidels,” he wrote in a 2015 post. The candidate in Rousseau also hinted that Muslims were threatening to extinguish democratic values. “Give a hammer to a sovereigntist, he will build a country. Give a Muslim a hammer, he will kill democracy. Give a useful idiot a hammer, he will give it to a Muslim,” his Facebook profile read.
Spouse of Mr. Vanier, Mme Provost made “identical or almost identical” remarks, said Paul St-Pierre Plamondon when he excluded them from his team.
According to “PSPP”, these publications are “absolutely incompatible” with the values of the party. “For us, such comments are completely unacceptable. I dissociate myself completely. It’s not my campaign, it’s not my Parti Québécois,” said the leader of the PQ.
He criticizes his team for letting Mr. Vanier’s texts pass under his radar. “Me, obviously, I had no knowledge of it, and I have a lot of difficulty understanding that we did not have this information, he said. I will not hide a form of anger on my side. »
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon did not ask Mme Provost and Mr. Vanier to withdraw their candidacy from the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGEQ). They therefore chose to present themselves as independents. However, since it is too late to change the ballots, the words “Parti québécois” will appear next to their names on Monday. And the sums granted to the parties for their share of the vote will be paid to the party, confirmed the DGEQ at the end of the afternoon.
Mr. Vanier and Mr.me Provost are the third and fourth PQ candidates in the campaign to find themselves in trouble for publications that have been posted on the Internet in the past. So far, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon had defended two of his candidates, Lyne Jubinville and Suzanne Gagnon, who had made controversial remarks on Islam, immigration and visible minorities.
A lack of leadership, says QS
On Friday, the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, challenged the PQ leader to prove that these new cases are exceptions to the rule. “Is it part of Mr. Plamondon’s project for Quebec to hit certain Quebecers like that, certain Quebec women just because of the religion they practice? he asked from the Montreal riding of Verdun.
A few hours later, he said he was surprised by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s decision not to ask them to officially withdraw their candidacy.
“Leadership is clearly saying who you want on your team and who you don’t want on your team,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, who had to ask his candidate Marie-Ève Rancourt to leave the electoral race. earlier this week because she was filmed stealing a PQ flyer from a mailbox in her riding. “Saying ‘I don’t want them, but I’m taking their vote’ is incoherent. »
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon denies having lacked leadership by not asking his ex-candidates to write off the campaign. “I go as far as I can in the powers granted to me. […] Then [ils ont] an argument that I hear, that if someone has made a mistake in the past and regrets it, that person wants to be evaluated on the whole of their person, their words and their campaign. But it will not be within the Parti Québécois,” he said.