The Liberals do not yet have a candidate for the partial in Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne, but they boast that they will choose a person who opposed the reform of the Charter of the French language.
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• Read also: Closure of Roxham Road: Quebec bets on Biden’s visit
Asked about the qualities that their candidate should have for the by-election in the riding left vacant by the departure of Dominique Anglade, the interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, underlined that he is looking for a “candidate who would not have voted for Bill 96”, before going on the offensive.
GABRIEL CÔTE/QMI AGENCY
“Québec solidaire sometimes has a double discourse on the defense of rights and freedoms. So we will have the opportunity to have this debate, “he said Tuesday, when he entered the pre-sessional caucus of the Liberals, in a hotel in Lac-Beauport.
GABRIEL CÔTE/QMI AGENCY
Solidarity has had its eyes riveted on Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne since the resignation of Ms. Anglade last fall. Sunday evening, they formalized the candidacy of lawyer Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who finished second on October 3, just under 3,000 votes behind the former Liberal leader.
Marc Tanguay insists that his party does not take Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne for granted, although the Liberals have held this riding since its creation in 1994.
The Liberals maintain that they are analyzing “several candidacies”. In the opinion of Marc Tanguay, his party is not lagging behind the Solidarity in the race, even if it does not yet have a candidate.
“I don’t think we can be late when Dominique Anglade has been the Member of Parliament for St-Henri-Ste-Anne since 2015. Dominique has represented in an extraordinary way, in a remarkable way, in a very unifying way, all the citizens of St-Henri-Ste-Anne. -Henri-Ste-Anne. That, I think, is not being late to have this report to present to the population, ”he said.
The choice of the person who will carry the banner of the Liberals will be made by “the authorities of the party”, also indicated Mr. Tanguay.
Derogation clause
The interim leader of the PLQ also skinned François Legault about his use of the derogatory clause, in particular in law 21 and in law 96, use which he considers “excessive and unreasonable”. According to him, the CAQ government “cancels the rights and freedoms of Quebecers” by taking advantage of this clause in a preventive manner in laws that affect particularly sensitive issues, such as language and secularism.
“It’s unprecedented to do this preemptively for all items, even before there’s been a debate. You know, when we talk about legal debate. Perhaps your measure holds water (…), but if the debate does not take place (…), it is an imbalance, and I do not want to live in a Quebec without a Quebec charter” , he argued.
Marc Tanguay, however, denies taking the same position as Justin Trudeau. He assures that he is not against the use of the derogation clause, but only that it “must be done in a targeted and reasonable manner”.
To explain his point of view, the interim leader of the PLQ claims the heritage of Robert Bourassa, who used this clause “in a pointed way” in the issue of the language of display, without “passing the scratch on the rights and everyone’s freedoms
“Fifty years later (…), not a PQ government has called into question the preponderance of French. It’s a balance,” he said.
Roxham
Called to react to the departure of Minister Fréchette, who said he hoped that Joe Biden’s visit would result in a renegotiation of the agreement on safe third countries, which allows the irregular passage of migrants through Roxham Road, Marc Tanguay expressed that he too is asking the federal government to review this agreement.
“It can’t go on like this. You can’t have that many people coming through Roxham Road,” he said.
Nevertheless, the Liberal leader does not believe that it is necessary to wait for Joe Biden to resolve the situation, and he calls on the federal government and the Quebec government to speed up the processing of applications from people who want to come and settle here.
Finally, Marc Tanguay does not think that the outright closure of Roxham Road is a viable solution. “They would go elsewhere,” he breathed.