Editor and committed citizen, the author has taught literature at college and is president of the governing board of a primary school. She co-directed and co-wrote the essay Shock treatments and tartlets (All in all, 2022).
It hurts my heart to write it. I would have loved for the only left-wing party in Quebec to be truly egalitarian, feminist in action and not just in words. I have often defended Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who still has the indestructible past of being too rebellious to win over the general population. But if I were an MP or co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire (QS), would my party support me? Would he defend me?
We must not deceive ourselves: the publication of Émilise Lessard-Therrien, although delicate, polite, poetic – at the height of the woman who likes to extend her hands and dream collectively rather than hitting anyone (except a certain foundry which does so). merit) —, highlights a problem much bigger than his own: that of the women of Québec solidaire. This is just another iteration of it. Possibly one too many.
It is not new that the women of Québec solidaire, candidates, elected officials or activists, have seen their ideals violated. Each event taken in isolation is perhaps not so “serious” or “significant”; we put it in the trash and move on. But when the trash can is overflowing, you have to put your nose and your hand in to dissect the contents, from the little trinkets to the big “Serpuarians”. And when you see that the same trinket is coming back, you have to ask questions. If Catherine Dorion dared to do it by ripping open the bags in broad daylight, many do it in the shadows.
In 2018, four female volunteers from the party’s coordination committee in Rosemont resigned en masse. This constituency was not considered “taken” in the elections, the volunteers worked very hard to make it so. “At that time, we gained the privilege of having a star candidate,” one of them told me. We wanted a woman or a racialized candidate to embody our principles, but the second the high-quality racialized candidate confirmed to us that he was up for it, we were told it was going to be Vincent Marissal. »
The problem here is not the chosen candidate — who was also elected, and who seems to be doing his job very well. The problem is repetition. “We are told: “We are going to follow the democratic process, but know that Gabriel and the whole machine will support candidate X.” Nothing serious in itself, but it always happens. »
Militant fatigue – and the resignations it causes – seems to come a lot from there, from the “machine”. Particularly among women. “We are told that we must be reasonable, that we will embody our principles once elected. » And while that day does not arrive, the same story is repeated in other constituencies, like Taschereau, and faith is lost further.
Like others, Lessard-Therrien was thirsty to concretely embody his principles. She was not free to do so. As a good Quebecer, we would say that one of the problems of QS is that shoes do not walk the talk (except to radically correct the situation by limiting male candidates). So, four months are enough for us to become exhausted when we realize that we won’t be able to change the machine.
A mirror to grasp
In The hotheads (Lux), Catherine Dorion says that a counselor asked her to police her clothing style, in addition to telling her: “Feminize everywhere: “students”, etc. » Commendable. But making women appear in the language without supporting them to maintain their place at the table, that becomes ceremonial feminism, parlance.
Émilise Lessard-Therrien’s salary as co-spokesperson was around $80,000 per year. About half of that of Nadeau-Dubois, who also serves as a deputy. Méganne Perry Mélançon, who has a status comparable to that of Lessard-Therrien, but in the Parti Québécois, receives around $100,000, in addition to having a staff apartment. “These are choices,” Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon, former QS candidate in Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata, told me, who will not run for a seat in the next election, like several female colleagues.
In 2023, Émilise Lessard-Therrien was already deploring the lack of support provided to the women of Québec solidaire. She encouraged the party to “better support women between two elections”, their political commitment being more difficult to continue due to the “mental load, children, home and family organization”.
In recent months, this lack of support has been cruelly felt: thousands of kilometers traveled alone, without a driver, in night buses; events covered without protection or support; no photographer for visibility. Asymmetric resources: a co-spokesperson who only had a “co-” in name.
At the end of April, Émilise Lessard-Therrien’s publication is a mirror that she courageously holds up to Québec solidaire. As Dorion did before her, but without the “ fuck you “. It reminds us that the parties swallow us up and highlights the paradox of commitment (and that of women and mothers in particular): what is the point of fighting within a party for the future of our children when our ideals, our voice is not heard, while our children draw in a ray of sunlight far from the gaze of their absent mother?
We hope that Québec solidaire will have the courage to look this mirror in the face, as well as to recognize its failings and to free itself from them. Women and racialized people are not transplants, they should be at the heart of QS, the only left-wing party in Quebec. But above all, let’s not kid ourselves: the problem of women in politics affects all parties. The only difference is that those from QS have the courage to speak.