“I have been watching François Legault’s rallies for two days and I have to see that there are more bodyguards than there are people. But the rest of us don’t need bodyguards, because the people are with us…”
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, spoke the words at a partisan rally in Saint-Romuald on Monday evening1.
He said this in a context of general concern at the multiplication of threats made to elected officials, here in Quebec and elsewhere in the country, and a few hours after Paul St-Pierre Plamondon revealed that the SQ had suggested a fitting. bulletproof vest, in case he needs it during the campaign2…
Éric Duhaime spoke these words while reports highlighted the omnipresence of police officers in the entourage of political leaders, at the start of the campaign.
The Conservative leader spoke these words after a weekend when Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, was verbally attacked by a misinformed wireworm who believes in a dictatorship in Alberta, who treated as a traitor with blows of fucking this and from fucking that and misogynistic insults…
Eric Duhaime could make an unequivocal call for calm. He could, like the other leaders, deplore in clear terms those who pollute the climate with threats and harassment.
Éric Duhaime could say clearly, often and directly that this has no place in politics. He could say it spontaneously, not just because he is denounced. Rather, he does it when the pressure gets intense: his first instinct on Monday night was to joke about threats to the Prime Minister’s security.
But he doesn’t.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec prefers to joke that he has nothing to fear, because “the people” are with him… LOL.
Thursday, the day after the arrest of a harassing crackpot who called the police to pretend he had just killed her3Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy arrested Éric Duhaime, accusing him of “channeling hatred and anger”.
What M saidme Rizqy is a factual observation.
No, Mr. Duhaime is not saying that politicians should be hanged; no, he is not advocating trials modeled on those of Nuremberg, as people stuck in the quicksand of disinformation would like…
But Éric Duhaime woos these people. He went to parade at their anti-sanitary demonstrations, he explains and trivializes their slippages by saying that they felt sacrificed during the pandemic. So yes, he “channels” unfortunate feelings.
Éric Duhaime could bring the grievances of these “sacrificed” into the public space, while firmly condemning the calls for murder. He doesn’t.
Why ?
For the same reason, I believe, that the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, did not condemn the attack on Chrystia Freeland. For the same reason that Pierre Poilievre, who aspires to lead the Conservative Party of Canada, did not condemn this attack on Mme Freeland only lip service (in response to a question from a journalist) without ever relaying this condemnation on social networks where he is however more active than an influencer paid per click…
This reason is simple: if MM. Duhaime, Bernier and Poilievre denounce the fantasies of violence of certain voters, they will denounce people who form their political base.
I’m not the only one to think so. Alain Rayes, MP for the Conservative Party of Canada, ex-travel companion of Mr. Duhaime at the ADQ, told me bluntly, Thursday, on the radio, about the wave of threats against politicians: “ I consider that these people [MM. Duhaime, Bernier et Poilievre] don’t dare to do it [dénoncer] so as not to displease some of the people who support them. »
This is not the first time that Éric Duhaime has trivialized violence and intimidation. In 2016, when a cracked man left a pig’s head at the door of the Great Mosque of Quebec, he pleaded on his radio microphone that it was… a stupid joke4…LOL.
Those among his listeners who hate Muslims must have found this “joke” very funny indeed.
And after the massacre of the said mosque, the following year, what did Éric Duhaime say about the killer?
He said he was a “political prisoner5 “.
When Laval University students were sexually assaulted in a campus residence, what did Éric Duhaime say on the radio?
He compared it to stealing a car whose owner didn’t lock the doors.6 : they had to lock their doors, the poor.
In politics, Éric Duhaime does as he did at his microphone: he spares the susceptibilities of the most excited of his target electorate. It channels reprehensible feelings.
So Eric Duhaime may say people scalded by health measures that they have the right to be represented, it is both true and false. Because we have to sort between legitimate anger and anger boosted by conspiracy, paranoia and misinformation…
I quote federal Conservative leadership candidate Scott Aitchison, who described the straight line between conspiracy and calls for violence: “Every day I get emails from people who are incredibly angry and paranoid. They think we should try Trudeau for crimes against humanity. They claim that vaccines kill millions of people and compare them to the Holocaust. This is what fear, anger and misinformation do in Canada. »
In Quebec, these people mainly identify with one party: Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party. It’s quantified: 50% of voters attracted to Mr. Duhaime adhere to conspiracy theories, according to a study by the University of Sherbrooke7.
And you don’t have to delve long into the Twitter or Facebook accounts of supporters of the Conservative Party of Quebec to discover people who have completely delusional views. Of course, not all Conservative supporters are conspiracy theorists. But Mr. Duhaime is the man of the conspiracy theorists.
Éric Duhaime’s flirtation with delusional ideas is a tragedy because traditionally, the absence of political relay took oxygen away from these crazy ideas. Duhaime gives oxygen to these ideas.
I said it in 2017 in a column when he was in the media world8 : You’re toxic, Eric.
I say it again now that Éric Duhaime is in politics, in 2022: You’re toxic, Éric.
And you are even more so than in 2017.