(Quebec) Former Prime Minister of Quebec Jean Charest is concerned about the rise in incivility across the country.
In an open letter that he co-signed with former mayors, senators, artists and business people, he calls on the political class to take concrete actions to clean up the public debate.
The letter, which was published this week in The Globe and Mailcaused a huge reaction on social networks, relates Mr. Charest in a telephone interview with La Presse Canadienne.
The reaction is very strong. It surprised us. That surprised me a lot. There are people who react badly by seeing in this call a kind of call for silence, when that is not the case at all.
Jean Charest, former premier of Quebec
The signatories say they see that Canadians are less and less tolerant of divergent points of view, and are increasingly bellicose, particularly when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They speak of a “widespread and worrying” trend, which leads certain people with “strident ideologies” and without “nuances” to act in ways that are sometimes “intimidating and violent”.
“We ask you, the senior political leaders, […] to demonstrate your shared commitment to fostering a safer, more cohesive and more respectful Canada, where hatred has no place,” they wrote.
According to them, the political class should constantly talk about the “values that unite us”, “fight against hatred”, while protecting the right of every Canadian to express “strong” or “unpopular” points of view.
If nothing is done to “urgently address the rise in incivility,” the Canadian social fabric will be “torn apart, perhaps irreparably,” the authors warn.
Bélisle, St-Pierre Plamondon and Joly
For Jean Charest, there is no doubt that social media have “freed people to speak.” He is particularly outraged to see what is happening in Quebec municipalities.
Last February, the mayor of Gatineau, France Bélisle, threw in the towel, explaining that she had been the victim of intimidation. Moreover, some 800 municipal officials have resigned since the 2021 election.
(Incivility) affects the ability of elected officials to do their job, to such an extent that there are people, like the mayor of Gatineau, who give up.
Jean Charest, former premier of Quebec
“There are women who, unfortunately, experience rather difficult situations when people make comments on social media that are frankly hurtful and intended to hurt. »
He also thinks of the PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who recently received death threats, and of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, arrested in the street about hostilities in the Middle East.
This conflict is also igniting passions on Quebec university campuses, according to Mr. Charest.
“I was talking to a university president recently. They are on the lookout […] so that there is a dialogue on campus, but it is very difficult, because there are a lot of emotions, and that is a major concern,” he says.
Jean Charest, who was Prime Minister of Quebec from 2003 to 2012, says he sees a “drift”, the level of tension having “increased a lot” in recent years, “hence the call to elected officials to talk about it”.
He notes the influence of American politics. “We say to Quebecers as well as to all other Canadians: ‘Don’t let what happens in the United States influence your way of seeing things.’
“We want to live in a society where there is a culture of tolerance, acceptance and dialogue. […] Our democracy is too important for us to let these things pass without saying anything,” he concluded.