Next Saturday, solidarity activists will be reunited for the first time since the October 3 election. I recommend a theme song to them to open their discussions: sad companion, of the French singer, often deliciously sarcastic, Bénabar. First, the title is topical. At the moment, Québec solidaire (QS) is the only party in Quebec, and in Ottawa, to still have no opinion on Mr.me Amira Elghawaby. Should she stay on? Mystery.
We can’t blame Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (GDN) for wanting to meet her before giving his verdict, because that’s what Yves-François Blanchet did. Still, in politics, the timing is essential. We understand in retrospect that the leader of the Bloc Québécois wanted to turn all the cameras in the country on him so that he could then state the position he had held from the start: not only Mr.me Elghawaby cannot stay, but the position of Islamophobia Advisor should not exist, given the confusion surrounding this term (is it only to combat anti-Muslim sentiment, which is admirable, or to challenge the right to criticize a religion, Islam, which is detestable?).
GND’s request for a meeting seems both more sincere than that of the Bloc leader – he could consider accepting his apology and wish him to remain in office – and highly riskier. First in the face of public opinion, whose bed is made. But especially in the face of one of its militant fringes who will be able to express themselves during the weekend debates and who believe that the simple fact of criticizing Mme Elghawaby is, in itself, Islamophobia.
What do we know? This: Much has been made of the 12 hours it took Liberal MP Jennifer Maccarone to realize that her morning tweet defending the problematic nomination needed to be taken down and necessitated a late-night tweet offering an apology.
His record was largely beaten by the solidarity deputy Haroun Bouazzi. Tuesday morning, he denounced on his Twitter feed the fact that the CAQ is asking for his resignation, accusing the government of “creating a diversion”, which he went to repeat in front of a camera. He also tweeted a trial of intent: “Legault’s strategists: “Look! There ! A woman who wears a veil!” It took him 24 hours before to correct the shot by writing : “I do not take lightly neither the errors of Mme Elghawaby ni wrestling [contre] Islamophobia. However, he takes accusations of intent lightly, because he does not regret what he wrote in his previous tweet, which was still online at the time this text was written.
The former candidate and solidarity framework Ève Torrès was also very active on the networks, saying that this appointment was “excellent news”. For the record, QS had scolded the Decolonial Anti-Racist Collective of which she was one of the driving forces and which accused the solidarity management of systemic racism, but he had not dissolved it. However, QS had dissolved the prolaïcité collective, which had made the mistake of being, how to say, prolaïcité.
In short, by extending until the coming week the decision to be taken on Mme Elghawaby, the solidarity leadership only increased the volume of potential grumbling at the party meeting, regardless of the decision.
Especially since other boilings are perceptible in other pans of solidarity on the fire, about the disastrous electoral commitments made during the electoral campaign and which sealed the possible rise of the party and about the leadership style of Nadeau- Dubois.
On the Presse-toi à gauche site, which serves as a forum for solidarity, we read: “Several activists have noticed Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois’ speech in I-me-me, rarely in we. This highlighting of Gabriel’s personality, including as a good dad, helped to overshadow the female co-spokesperson, Manon Massé, despite her being a unifying personality, and to put the feminist discourse muted. »
He is also accused of having muted independence, leaving this field to the PQ, and of having dreamed out loud of becoming the official opposition. “This objective overestimated the possibilities of QS by betting on the death of the PQ and the descent into hell of the PLQ. The concrete result of this error was the demobilization of activists the day after the results. Another writes: “This campaign was a triumph of the verticalist electoral machine. The machine has nothing more to learn from the traditional parties, quite the contrary. Any trace of doing politics differently has disappeared. »
Nadeau-Dubois is perfectly aware that he will have a bad time. It opened obliquely to The Press recently. “Personally, I think I have the image of someone who doesn’t really question himself,” he said, which, indeed, is problematic. If he had, in the middle of the campaign, admitted that one of the controversial commitments was a mistake, he would, in my opinion, have gained popularity. Since then, he says, “I have engaged in an exercise in reflection and self-criticism”.
We are far from the triumphalist accents heard on election night. GND now speaks openly about its inability to create an intergenerational coalition and the risk of its party plateauing. You can almost touch your soul wave.
I return to Bénabar, whose song tries to name this evil of living. It’s not despair, he sings, “It’s not spleen either […] And it’s not melancholy, it’s a shame I would have liked it / But the singers have already taken everything, there were more / It’s just a sad companion.
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