“I have always thought that ignorance is the main cause of prejudice […] it is very worrying, and that is one of the reasons why we are here. This is what Richard Wagner, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, said when commenting on the social climate and the questioning of institutions by part of the population a few days ago, when he was passing through at the Quebec courthouse.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
These wise words from Judge Wagner sounded in my ears as a sad and unfortunate observation of what our democracy has now become, with the collusion of all political parties without exception.
Since the arrival of Trump and his democracy at the head of the United States, we have witnessed a drastic transformation and devolution of democratic practice in the West.
Obviously, Quebec, with the majority election of the CAQ in 2018 by only 25% of all voters, did not escape this devolution.
A discourse that divides and pits Quebecers against each other instead of being for each other. Just in the first nine months of their “majority” mandate, we have witnessed three gags. To do what ? Throw in the trash a few hundred immigrant files, modify the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms, discriminate against some Quebecers (mostly women) because of their religious beliefs and suppress school democracy.
That was the first scandal of CAQ governance. And what did we do? Nothing ! Why ? Because François Legault, like his super minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, always liked to hammer home: “We have a strong mandate! »
Thereafter, we witnessed several controversial statements and gestures from caucus and CAQ ministers. The most notorious and astonishing of these declarations was that of the reprimands of the Ethics Commissioner in the National Assembly against the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon. And what was the Prime Minister’s reaction to these reprimands? Well, the law must be changed, because it is too strict. Oddly, that same law wasn’t as severe when he was the chief shirt-ripper as the second opposition.
Women ministers have not escaped the consequences of the CAQ’s “strong mandate” either. At the first fault, they were dismissed and replaced by men, supposedly more competent. Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, continued to accumulate blunders and incomplete information, peacefully without any reprimand. It’s normal, he’s a man and the CAQ loves men, perhaps because they are more docile than women, as our Deputy Prime Minister, Geneviève Guilbault, likes to describe Quebecers.
Unfortunately, there is not enough time to quote all the controversial acts and declarations of this party with a “strong mandate”.
But what about the PLQ? My party, yes and I say this with bitterness and great sadness. This great party of Jean Lesage who took Quebec out of its Duplessist darkness to bring it back to the Caquist darkness. This great party of Robert Bourassa and the liberal values of Claude Ryan has unfortunately lost its north.
Alas, this great party has decided to reduce itself to a simple copycat of CAQ nationalism which sows division. Instead of talking about purchasing power, social justice, the dignity of seniors and the defense of rights and freedoms, he decided to compete with the CAQ on who is more nationalist than the other. It has become a party with a weak leadership, some of whose leaders go from left to right, using a Jack Sparrow compass to try to compete with the CAQ. And this, instead of respecting activists and winning over the hearts and souls of Quebecers, all Quebecers. Add to all this ethically questionable candidate selection practices (some openly Islamophobic): intimidation, use of confidential information for dubious purposes and so on.
And the result? My party is fighting for its existence, not just in Quebec but also on the island of Montreal, known as its stronghold.
Solidarity Quebec? I think it is the only party that has remained faithful to its convictions by being the chief alarmist party in Quebec. Yes, thanks to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who certainly didn’t change his speech, but that doesn’t make it any less debatable. He wants to tax everyone, even the dead so much that he has earned the title “The Lord of Taxes”. He wants the state to be present everywhere and to control everything. Well, I hope he won’t stop me from continuing to listen. House of the Dragonwhich I have been waiting for for so many years!
The Parti Québécois? Yes, I’m talking about the party of René Lévesque, Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry. I am talking about the party which, unfortunately, decided overnight to climb the slippery slope of dividing Quebeckers between traitors and heroes.
Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party of Quebec? Frankly, words fail me to describe it without starting to “crying”. So, I’ll let you make your own observations…
In short, over the past four years, we have witnessed a populist rise worthy of another century, even another era.
The arrival of the CAQ on the political spectrum has created a democratic climate so sick that any controversy, which had the effect of bringing down governments, passes through the butter like any other banal news. It has become the norm.
Welcome to the era of populist democracy.