(Quebec) Manon Massé affirms that the crisis which has shaken her party since the shock resignation of Émilise Lessard-Therrien will experience a certain outcome at the National Council from May 24 to 26 at the Jonquière CEGEP when members will decide whether they adopt , in full or in modified form, the “Saguenay declaration”, a first step which is part of the “pragmatic” vision of parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
Earlier this week, the former co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire (QS) and member of Parliament for Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques wrote on her Facebook page that experience suggested to her “that it is never good for left to seek to resolve its disagreements in the public square. However, this Thursday, around forty former candidates, former employees, activists and former MP Catherine Dorion signed in The Press an open letter in which they worried that Mr. Nadeau-Dubois would distort the party to present himself as a government in waiting.
Mme Massé recognizes that the signatories of the letter, which notably include the former president and ex-co-spokesperson André Frappier, the former candidate in Rimouski Carol-Ann Kack and the accounting professor Christine Gilbert, that the party wanted have as a candidate during the last by-election in Jean-Talon, have the right to speak in the debate.
“Our members at Québec solidaire are important. They are the ones who align our work and I saw the people who signed this letter, several of them are people I know I will see and who will have the right to vote in two weeks (in Saguenay). But they won’t be the only ones. There are going to be other worlds that will want to express themselves,” she warned.
According to Mme Massé, who is making a gradual return to parliament after having undergone a third heart operation in a few months, “Gabriel launched a debate last week, and when you launch a debate, it explodes from everywhere and it’s healthy.”
“Québec solidaire, not everyone in the world thinks the same. (…) People expressed themselves in the public square, but at the National Council in two weeks, we will meet together and democracy will make decisions,” she added.
A misunderstood open letter
For Manon Massé, the criticisms formulated by certain members are similar to the frustrations that were expressed when QS activists chose to strengthen their position in favor of the independence of Quebec. At the time, some did not agree, she recalls.
“There were two choices (for them). Either they stayed with us saying OK, basically it’s one element among many others, we’re going for it, or they said we’re leaving,” she said.
For his part, the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Alexandre Leduc, affirms that he did not understand what the signatories of the open letter wanted to denounce on Thursday.
“On the merits of things, I did not understand what their exact position was with Catherine and these co-signatories on the Saguenay Declaration. This is what is a debate: whether or not we should adopt this declaration and review our program,” he reframed.
In a response he gave in English, Mr. Leduc added that he noted that former MP Catherion Dorion, signatory of the letter and author of the essay The hotheadsin which she criticizes Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, is against the parliamentary leader of QS.
“She had things to say about Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, and we all understood that. This is not big news with his book that we have all read (…). But the question that will be debated at the National Council in two weeks is: are we going to reopen and revisit our program based on the regional tour that we did for a few months (or not),” said Mr. Leduc.
With the Saguenay Declaration, of which The Press revealed the content last Saturday, Québec solidaire presents a “base” from which it will refresh its ideas and put aside commitments that have accumulated over the years. The party must also review its political program in the coming months.
reference: www.lapresse.ca