(Quebec) The Parti Québécois (PQ) has certainly experienced a historic defeat, its “three musketeers” who were elected during the election believe that they have “solid foundations” on which to build the continuation of their party.
Updated yesterday at 4:18 p.m.
The expression, in reference to the famous book by Alexandre Dumas, was used Friday by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon as a sign that the PQ leader and MP for the riding of Camille-Laurin in Montreal is ready for parliamentary battles.
His primary objective, which he once again explained during his swearing-in speech at the Salon Rouge, is to allow the PQ members, as well as the representatives of Québec solidaire, to sit without having taken the oath to King Charles III. .
“When did Quebeckers, directly or through their elected representatives, consent to the existence of this oath to the King of England? When did Quebeckers even consent to a foreign royal family, the one that hanged the patriots, the one that deported the Acadians and the one that confirmed the unilateral patriation of the Canadian Constitution without Quebec’s agreement […] be chosen to formally lead the Canadian state and the Quebec state? asked Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
« À travers les siècles, c’est donc au nom du colonialisme et de la domination impériale britannique qu’on force nos élus québécois à se parjurer. Et je pense qu’il est temps d’en finir avec un passé que nous n’avons jamais choisi », a-t-il ajouté.
Dans la salle, où un nombre important d’invités étaient rassemblés pour l’assermentation des députés, les cris et les applaudissements ont fréquemment nourri le discours du chef du PQ. Il était ému aux larmes.
Une rencontre exigée
Tout comme Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois de Québec solidaire, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon demande à François Legault de rencontrer les chefs d’opposition et de trouver une voie de passage pour que les députés qui n’ont pas promis allégeance au roi Charles III siègent dès la reprise des travaux, le 29 novembre.
Dans son point de presse d’assermentation, le chef du PQ a cité l’avis émis vendredi dans Le Devoir par des constitutionnalistes, Henri Brun et Daniel Turp, entre autres. Ces derniers estiment qu’une motion déposée au Salon bleu voulant qu’un député puisse siéger même s’il n’a pas fait son serment d’allégeance à la monarchie pourrait suffire. Le ministre de la Justice et leader parlementaire du gouvernement, Simon Jolin-Barrette, a plus tôt cette semaine répondu qu’un projet de loi était nécessaire.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon demande à Québec de montrer ses avis juridiques. « Peut-être que la motion ne produira pas les effets escomptés. À ce moment-là, nous on est ouvert à faire le projet de loi avec eux. C’est important de comprendre que l’un n’exclut pas l’autre », a-t-il dit.
Optimistes pour l’avenir
Le député de Matane-Matapédia Pascal Bérubé, qui a été chef parlementaire du PQ après sa défaite en 2018, estime que son parti part sur de meilleures bases cette année sur lesquelles reconstruire son mouvement.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE
Le député de Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, avec en arrière-plan le chef péquiste Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
« En 2018, notre chef perd. [Là], our leader enters. In 2018, we said to ourselves that this is not quite the campaign that we wanted to lead collectively, then I do not blame anyone. But there, people were enthusiastic. […] 2018, we were in debt. We are no longer in debt. There are many other signals,” he listed.
The former PQ MP for the riding of Taschereau in Quebec, Agnès Maltais, hailed the “stature” of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. “The speech he just made, he continues to have the stature of a leader like I’ve been hoping to see in Quebec for a long time,” she said.
A few minutes earlier, the latter had declared that “although there are fewer of us than I would have liked, we must keep an overview and remember that we are, of course, three chosen ones, but we We are also more than 2 million Quebecers who want Quebec to become a country”.
No Abitibi minister: an insult, according to former minister François Gendron
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
Former PQ minister François Gendron.
Abitibi suffered an affront on Thursday when it found that it had no deputy from the region around the cabinet table, according to former PQ minister and former president of the National Assembly François Gendron.
According to him, the Abitibi population will react “violently”, because this region “does not deserve what is happening to it”, he added, sobs in his voice, Friday, during a brief scrum with the press, in the margins of the swearing-in of the three PQ members elected or re-elected on October 3, in the Red Room of Parliament.
“It’s inappropriate, not respectful, it makes no sense,” he said.
“When we respect a region, we give it access to the holy of holies”, that is to say the council of ministers, supported the former dean of the National Assembly, elected for the first time in 1976, in the government of René Lévesque , in the riding of Abitibi-Ouest, and who is known for his outspokenness.
A huge territory, Abitibi has three ridings (Abitibi-Est, Abitibi-Ouest and Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue) and the three elected a member of the government party, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), on October 3. But none of them were invited to join the Legault cabinet on Thursday.
In the first mandate, one of the deputies of the region re-elected on October 3, Pierre Dufour, was Minister of Forests. But he became a simple deputy on Thursday.
Prime Minister François Legault on Thursday entrusted the new Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, MP for Outaouais, with responsibility for the Abitibi region.
After a long political career spanning several decades, François Gendron chose not to be a candidate in 2018.
Jocelyne Richer, The Canadian Press