The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, accuses of “lack of coherence and courage” the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, who slipped during an interview at the Duty that Quebec should ideally be a full member of UNESCO, before specifying that he did not intend to make a fight of it.
“He wants it, he dreams of it, and immediately afterwards, he takes the trouble to say that he will not lead this battle, that he will let Canada decide for Quebec within its delegation. It’s all spitting Caquisme! said Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
The separatist leader believes that Quebec will never be able to have its own seat within UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as long as it is not a country independent.
To claim otherwise is to fuel false hopes, believes the leader of the Parti Québécois. “Essentially, the minister is dangling the benefits of being a landlord, but at the same time, he is stubborn to remain a tenant within Canada,” he argues.
The Minister of Culture is to fly Monday evening to Paris, where he will deliver a speech at UNESCO headquarters in which he will plead for the defense of cultural specificities in the face of Americanization. Questioned before his departure on the status of Quebec at UNESCO, Mathieu Lacombe dropped that Quebec would be, in an ideal world, a full member of this international organization. “I can’t help but wish it was,” he said.
However, he does not intend to ask Ottawa for a separate seat at UNESCO, he was careful to point out afterwards. Minister Lacombe says he is quite content with the space that Canada leaves to Quebec within its delegation: “I feel that Ottawa respects our autonomy [à l’UNESCO], even if we do not always agree. I don’t feel that Ottawa is over our shoulder to monitor what we do. »
QS abounds for independence
In 2006, the governments of Jean Charest and Stephen Harper came to an agreement on Quebec’s representation at UNESCO. Since then, the province can appoint its own delegate general, who is part of the Canadian delegation.
Unlike the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), however, Quebec does not have its own delegation within UNESCO. Apart from Palestine, only independent states have membership.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is not the only one to have raised contradictions in the Minister’s comments to the Duty.
At Quebec solidaire too, we also took advantage of this interview to recall the independence position of the party. “There is only one way to have a seat at UNESCO without having Ottawa always looking over our shoulder: independence,” Taschereau MP Etienne Grandmont wrote on Twitter.