Solidarity MP Haroun Bouazzi was accused by activists of paying for the membership of new members, in contravention of electoral law, during the very close contest for the nomination which preceded his election last spring. Resignation en bloc from the local executive, accusation of racial profiling: suspicions of irregularities have created an internal crisis in Quebec solidaire.
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Our Bureau of Investigation has gotten hold of a series of documents, which have remained secret until now, describing the rat race that surrounded the investiture of the new supportive deputy for Maurice-Richard last spring. The protesters behind the complaint dispute the validity of his narrow victory.
A month before the inauguration, party officials in Maurice-Richard said that 11 new members recruited by the Bouazzi team, out of 33 contacted, had admitted not having paid for their membership themselves.
Despite their request, QS refused to verify another 180 new membership cards and Haroun Bouazzi was elected candidate with a lead of only five votes.
A few days later, the eight members of the local executive resigned en bloc, “in protest”.
On May 24, they wrote to the party asking to “immediately dismiss” Mr. Bouazzi “due to serious irregularities”. According to them, “the number of these irregular memberships far exceeds the margin of 5 votes” that sealed the victory.
But their request was received with a cold shower by the general secretary of the party. In a response sent two days later, he assured that all the voters who voted for the nomination were “members in good standing”, then took on the protesters.
“illegitimate investigation”
He accuses them of having carried out an “illegitimate investigation”, in addition to having contacted only “members with an Arabic-sounding name” as part of their checks.
“This is a practice that at first glance resembles racial profiling, which has absolutely no place in Québec solidaire,” writes Nicolas Chatel-Launay, the real leader of the party under electoral law.
He then adds a warning: “We also consider your accusations defamatory with regard to the democratically invested candidate and we could not accept that such remarks be made in the public space”.
QS ensures integrity
In an interview, Mr. Chatel-Launay claims to have taken all measures to ensure the integrity of the nomination.
“Our in-house accountant called the 11 people […] and none of them told us that Haroun or someone from his team would have paid for his membership card,” says QS general secretary Nicolas Chatel-Launay. The process was overseen by the party’s lawyer.
At the end of the checks, a person asked to have his membership cancelled.
“When we checked the members, there are some of these members who did not remember having paid or not. We remember that the allegation that is important is that ”Haroun Bouazzi paid my contribution”, underlines Mr. Chatel-Launay.
However, those contacted did indeed wish to be members, he argues.
Since the amount for membership is low (a choice of $5 or $25), these new members could have forgotten in good faith, he believes. “A 5 piastres is quite easily forgotten,” says Mr. Chatel-Launay.
QS therefore asked them to pay again and sent the amount to the DGEQ in order to be sure not to keep the duplicate amount. “So, we made sure that the person had really paid his contribution and that the money really came from that person,” continues the secretary general.
Schism
For Nicolas Chatel-Launay, the current controversy is the fruit of activists disappointed with the defeat of their candidate, Raphaël Rebelo. “It seems quite normal to me to want to find an explanation for why we were defeated,” he says.
A member of the local executive who resigned believes, for his part, that the crisis has hurt the party in Maurice-Richard. Several very active activists tore up their membership cards and abstained from voting for QS in recent elections, the source said.