The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, officially accepted Sandro Grande’s apology on Sunday, after the two men had exchanged for more than an hour in the premises of the Parti Québécois office in Montreal.
Mr. Grande had been hired by CF Montreal as head coach of the reserve team. He was quickly shown the door after a post on Twitter dating back ten years had emerged in the public space. In this publication, he had supported the author of the Metropolis attack against Pauline Marois and had regretted that the shooter had missed his target.
“I found in Sandro Grande a sincere man in his apologies and I was able to discuss the situation with his family, who obviously experienced a very difficult situation over the past few weeks,” wrote Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. in a Facebook post.
Mr. Grande had publicly apologized on Thursday, in addition to sending a letter to Ms. Marois.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon shared an excerpt from her response. “I am convinced that you want to pass on good values to your children, but all public figures – this includes you of course – must contribute to a respectful debate and transmit the importance of this respect to the younger generations, a- she writes. I am told that you and members of your family are receiving hurtful messages in the wake of recent events. This goes completely against my values. If you believe that publishing your letter and my response can help turn the page, I encourage you to do so. »
“Insofar as Ms. Marois does not wish to see Mr. Grande be ostracized or ‘cancelled’, I feel comfortable, as leader of our political formation and of our movement, to accept his apologies and thus allow Mr. Grande to turn the page, so that he can contribute as positively as possible to our society in the future,” explained Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
He added that the two men had agreed to work together in the future to organize hate prevention activities.
“This difficult episode will have allowed the whole of Quebec society to agree on the fact that the separatists deserve neither contempt nor intimidation; and that collectively, we reject violence, regardless of the political party or political idea in question, concluded Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. Insofar as Mr. Grande adheres to these principles and is sincere in his approach, which I felt on his part, we wish him to reintegrate into society in a role in which he apparently excels, that of teaching soccer to young people. »