Montreal: ‘You Are Wrong’ About Sovereignty, Group Tells MP; Duceppe

‘YOU ARE WRONG’ ABOUT SOVEREIGNTY, GROUP TELLS MP; DUCEPPE JOINS FRAY IN CONDEMNING MOURANI FOR FLIP-FLOP

The Gazette (Montreal)
December 20, 2013 Friday
Early Edition

PHILIP AUTHIER, The Gazette

Maria Mourani’s transformation from lifelong sovereignist to federalist
has earned her a stiff rebuke and ridicule from her former allies. The
condemnation started late Wednesday within moments of her stunning
political flip-flop, and rolled on into Thursday with her old boss,
former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, joining the pack of
people lashing out at a woman they used to praise as a model of
sovereignist integration philosophies. Duceppe said it wasn’t so
much Mourani’s change of allegiance that surprised him, but that the
“tortuous logic” used to get there astounded him.

Especially bizarre, he said, was Mourani using the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms – a document adopted without the agreement of
Quebec – to justify her leap.

“The logic, which supposedly is based on principles, doesn’t hold up,”
Duceppe told the Canadian Press.

“How can she maintain that this charter protects minorities when it
does not recognize the Quebec nation?” Duceppe strongly suggested
Mourani is acting out of opportunism.

He recalled that in 2006, when he was Bloc leader, Mourani asked him
to revive the Bloc’s position on the Armenian genocide based on the
logic that Armenians vote Liberal and Turks voted for her.

“This is not how one does politics,” Duceppe said. “When we are
prepared to reconsider the genocide because people vote Liberal,
the least we can say is that these are not what you call highlevel
principles.

“She has just showed her incoherence and how little she cares about
principles. She invokes them when it suits her.”

And that was not the only swipe at Mourani, who on Wednesday turned
her back on sovereignty, saying Canada and its Charter of Rights and
Freedoms offers better protection to Quebecers.

Thursday morning, one sovereignty group that opposes the Parti
Quebecois government’s proposed charter ripped Mourani’s logic,
saying it’s OK to be a sovereignist and still oppose the charter.

“You are wrong, Mme. Mourani,” the group, Souverainistes contre la
charte, said in a statement.

“In renouncing your sovereignist convictions on the basis of the
Parti Quebecois charter, you are making a mistake in your reasoning.

“All sovereignists are not in the same basket. More than ever, in
this period of confusion created by the PQ and its charter, we are
in need of your voice.

“The country we seek to build will be created by and for all
Quebecers.”

Mourani, who now sits as the independent MP for the riding of Ahuntsic
– the Bloc kicked her out of its caucus in September – sent a shock
wave through tightly knit sovereignty ranks with her letter Wednesday.

Not only was Mourani a former Bloc MP, she ran for the party leadership
two years ago, earning enough support to place second to winner Daniel
Paille, who resigned Monday.

Mourani is a staunch Catholic of Lebanese descent. She often wears
a crucifix around her neck in public.

A rare immigrant to work for the sovereignty cause, Mourani’s presence
was considered so significant she was named “patriot of the year”
in 2012 by the nationalistic Societe St-Jean-Baptiste.

That all changed in the blink of an eye Wednesday with her flip
to federalism.

SSJB president Mario Beaulieu had to revise his group’s position on
Mourani Thursday.

“She deserved her prize for past actions,” Beaulieu said. “But to
assert that the Canadian charter protects Quebecers’ identity, we
would like to know where and how? “This (federal) charter helped defeat
Bill 101, promoted multiculturalism to drown the Quebec identity. It’s
really disappointing on the part of Maria Mourani.”

Officials with Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville,
who is in charge of the charter issue in the PQ government, said he
would not comment on Mourani’s move.

One PQ insider said talking about Mourani’s move just draws more
attention to it, so they prefer to stay quiet.

But former PQ leader Bernard Landry waded in deep. In a heated exchange
on Radio-Canada Wednesday evening with Mourani, Landry ripped his
old friend.

“I find your change of orientation extremely painful, but your
arguments are worse than your actions.

“Your arguments (represent) contempt for the Quebec people.”

Mourani, who told The Gazette Wednesday she had no regrets about her
decision, said she believes she has the support of the vast majority
of voters in her riding.

Also Thursday, the sovereignist anti-charter group added its letter to
the mix. It is signed by 29 sovereignty activists, including former
Bloc MP Jean Dorion and Alexandre Leduc, a former Quebec solidaire
candidate in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The letter questions Mourani’s move
and states while they oppose the charter of values, the federal system
does not allow Quebecers to express their collective aspirations,
and that is why they back sovereignty.

“We are profoundly convinced that Canada is a beautiful country but
it is not ours. Our country is Quebec.”

It says they are saddened by the way the PQ is using the concept of
secularism to obtain a parliamentary majority in the next elections.

“The hunt for veils will not bring us any closer to independence,” the
group says. “We do not build a new country on fear. We build it based
on solidarity and a policy of living together based on tolerance.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress