In the eyes of the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, intersectional feminism is neither more nor less than a “weapon” wielded by Canada against Quebec.
This is what he mentioned on Saturday, in a speech to PQ supporters at the regular party convention in Sherbrooke. This vision of feminism recently made headlines in the National Assembly, on the sidelines of International Women’s Rights Day.
“The same people who have the courage to denounce that the words ‘systemic racism’ are being used as a weapon against Quebec must stand up, launched Mr. Blanchet during his speech. The same people who have the courage to denounce that we are perverting the idea – perhaps scientifically valid somewhere – of intersectionality to make it a weapon against Quebec must stand up. »
The Bloc leader criticizes the federal government of Justin Trudeau for imposing a “woke” ideology on Quebecers and “perverting science” to the detriment of Quebec values. “Canada is trying to erase Quebec from the world stage,” he said Saturday.
At the end of February, the Coalition avenir Québec government opposed a Quebec solidaire motion — co-signed by the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Québécois — which encouraged “gender-based analysis in a intersectional perspective”.
Born in the 1980s, the concept of “intersectionality” aims to recognize that different types of discrimination — based on gender, skin color, socioeconomic status — can intersect.
“It is not our vision of feminism,” said the government of François Legault when called to explain its rejection of the solidarity motion. The Parti Québécois, which had nevertheless given its approval to the motion, says it is for a “universalist”, not “intersectional” feminism.
Asked Saturday about his remarks vis-à-vis intersectionality, Yves-François Blanchet said that intersectionality, as an American concept, had been transposed in a “rather uncertain” way in Quebec. “I’m not saying that the very notion is irrelevant. I say that its instrumentalization to ultimately attack Quebec values […] is not acceptable,” he said.