Quebec’s chief scientist, Rémi Quirion, cancels his participation in the general council of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which raised questions among certain political parties.
The public office holder, who appeared until midday on Wednesday on the agenda of the partisan rally scheduled for May 25, finally asked François Legault’s party to remove his name. According to the general director of the CAQ, Brigitte Legault, he will be outside Quebec that weekend.
At the time of writing, the office of the Chief Scientist of Quebec had still not responded to questions from the Duty. There is no way, therefore, of knowing whether the cancellation of his presence at the CAQ general council is directly or indirectly linked to the criticisms issued earlier Wednesday by Québec solidaire (QS) and the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ).
In a written statement, the solidarity deputy Vincent Marissal, spokesperson for ethics, had in fact invited Mr. Quirion to “reconsider his decision very seriously”. “We are going to let the CAQ manage its general council, but Mr. Quirion occupies a position which appears to us to be incompatible with this type of commitment,” he said.
“It’s a public function. Normally, there is no partisanship for this type of function. I don’t see why the CAQ would appropriate it,” thundered the leader of the PCQ, Éric Duhaime, on the sidelines of a press conference on private health, Wednesday morning.
Questioned on this subject, the CEO of the CAQ, Mme Legault, justified the decision to invite Mr. Quirion to speak, as part of a panel on “the effects of social media on young people”.
“It’s been several months since we approached Mr. Quirion, at the beginning of establishing the programming,” she said. “Because we wanted an expert who positioned himself, who did studies, who still had something important to bring to the discussion on social media, the whole health aspect in relation to children , brain development and all that. »
Faced with criticism from QS and the PCQ, Ms. Legault maintained that Mr. Quirion was coming “as an expert” and encouraged them to issue an invitation in turn. “Mr. Quirion is the chief scientist of all Quebecers. He came on a panel to answer questions from citizens, who, yes, have a CAQ membership card, but they are still citizens who want to learn more about the research he has carried out,” he said. -she says.
“We didn’t see a problem,” she added.
Further details will follow.