This letter addresses Bill 57, which aims to enable municipal and provincial elected officials to obtain “an injunction against citizens who harass them, with fines of up to $1,500.”1.
Everyone who works has the right to do so in a harassment-free environment. Unfortunately, a report from the Quebec Federation of Municipalities (FMQ) highlights different forms of threats against elected officials, both from individuals and between elected officials, particularly with regard to women.
What poses a problem in the text of the bill is the potential hindrance to the political expression of citizens.
In its current form, the bill appears to concern both individuals violent against elected officials and community groups acting to influence political decisions.
The bill would allow fines to be given to individuals who “unduly obstruct the exercise (of) functions or infringe (the) right to privacy” of elected officials1. Leaving an interpretive vagueness, it could therefore be a person threatening an elected official, but also an individual who tries to make his political opinion heard, although it could disturb the elected official concerned. One has nothing to do with the other and their actions have completely different aims.
So what is the government trying to do here? Stop individuals who make threats or limit the population’s speech when they do not agree? Why does the project presentation not talk about the harassment between politicians that the FMQ report documents?
For example, community groups can send postcards to an elected official, asking to review a bill that concerns them. Banal, right? Recently, however, a group was threatened with prosecution because of such an action.
The groups also go without appointment to constituency offices with signs in hand and slogans in mouth to assert their demands.
Political action is therefore not to be confused with that of an individual who threatens another. However, this bill seems to lump them together. Indirectly, it would have the effect of controlling the means of political action.
Political action to be heard and respected
When we compare community groups to elected officials, the latter are in a position of power. They work in political spaces that few of us have access to. Their voices are heard in the media and their political positions disseminated widely. This is only very rarely the case for the most vulnerable populations; let us think of people receiving social assistance, those experiencing homelessness or the elderly people displaced by the hundreds. Yet all of these groups are affected by social policies and public service reforms.
The difference between elected officials and members of community groups is that the opinion of the latter does not have the same resonance in spaces of power and in the media.
While they are often directly affected by political decisions, their opinion is very rarely heard. It is for this reason that political action, particularly directed towards elected officials, is essential. It allows you to express yourself, possibly be heard and respected, despite the obstacles to participation in the political system.
Minister Andrée Laforest’s bill raises important questions about the place of the population in our democratic institutions when they wish to assert a political position. It is in this sense that Bill 57 must be rethought to target individuals and elected officials who threaten other elected officials.
* Community groups and national groups co-signatories: Association for the Defense of Social Rights of Gatineau, Quebec Association for the Promotion of the Health of Drug Users (AQPSUD), Center des Travailleurs et des Travaileuses immigrant.es/Immigrant Workers Center, Committee of adult education of Little Burgundy and Saint-Henri (CEDA), Unemployment committee of eastern Montreal, Housing committee Bas-Saint-Laurent, Housing committee of Plateau Mont-Royal, Housing committee Ville-Marie, Entraide Hochelaga-Maisonneuve housing, Infologis de l’est de l’île de Montréal, Autonomous and solidarity movement of the unemployed (MASSE), Popular education and community action movement of Quebec (MEPACQ), Popular organization of social rights (OPDS), Popular organization, information and regrouping project (POPIR Housing Committee), Popular education group in community action of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches, Women’s action network in health and social services (RAFSSS ), Quebec Network of Independent Community Action (RQ-ACA), Network of Regional Tables of Women’s Groups of Quebec (RTRGFQ), Industrial Union of Workers of Montreal (SITT-IWW-MTL)
1. Read “Up to $1,500 fine for those who intimidate elected officials”
What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue
reference: www.lapresse.ca