PQ resolute despite call to shorten coming debate

The heated debate over a charter of values found its way onto the floor of the National Assembly Tuesday with the Parti Québécois government digging in its heels, determined to proceed with its plan.

And even an offer to fast-track the debate in the name of avoiding possible further social tension appears to be doomed for now.

Premier Pauline Marois remained non-committal when Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault rose in the legislature to extend his “hand of friendship” and a compromise he says could see the debate wrapped up in a matter of weeks so everyone can focus on the economy.

“Can the premier understand we cannot divide ourselves, tear ourselves apart for months and months?” Legault fired across the floor.

“Debate doesn’t mean dividing, debate doesn’t mean bickering,” Marois responded.

Later, she told the legislature she was frankly “surprised” that Quebecers have already taken to the streets to protest against the proposal when the wording of the actual bill enacting the value’s package is not even known.

“We are not the only ones on the planet (who have had to discuss the issue),” Marois said. “We think this debate needs to take place and, as I said earlier, it needs to be done with serenity and respect.”

But even as she spoke, seven veiled Muslim women stood quietly on the lawn of the legislature holding up protest signs.

And Marois’s minister responsible for Montreal, Jean-François Lisée, just back from a mission in Africa, was parachuted into the fray to try to quash friction already emerging in the city.

In Montreal Tuesday morning, Lisée described as “disgusting racism” several incidents over the past few days, including one captured on video of a man hurling insults at a woman wearing a hijab riding the No. 69 bus on Gouin Blvd.

The video was posted on the Huffington Post website.

“Take off your veil or go home,” the man says, to which the woman responds: “It’s your government that brought me to this country.”

With his top shirt unbuttoned and tie askew, Lisée urged everyone to take a deep breath.

And in the halls of legislature, there was a mix of defiance and appeals for calm. Quebec cabinet ministers have on cue lashed out, in person and on Twitter, at English-Canadian analysts questioning the wisdom of the proposal.

The government’s line is nobody can tell Quebec it can’t debate the question. On Sunday on Radio-Canada, Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville, the point man on the values file, bluntly told the rest of the country to butt out of Quebec’s debates.

But there was a warning from a concerned Québec solidaire MNA Françoise David, who represents the Montreal riding of Gouin.

“The political class is going to have to feel responsible for finding honourable compromises for everyone,” she said.

Pundits noted, however, that the PQ managed to dodge serious heat from the Liberals Tuesday because Leader Philippe Couillard was thrown on the defensive over reports of UPAC’s raid on the party’s offices.

Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier nevertheless accused the Marois government of “lighting the fire of exclusion and social fractures,” to avoid a debate on the economy.

Marois’s response was the government can do more than one thing at a time, but Legault was not convinced.

By 4 p.m. he had called in the media to again pitch a compromise. He made no mention of the fact that the more the debate is polarized between the Liberals and PQ, the more the CAQ’s standing in the polls slips.

(Support for the CAQ is now pegged at 18 per cent, well behind the Liberals and PQ.)

Legault repeated that he finds the PQ’s plan to prohibit all public workers from wearing religious headgear and symbols too radical.

He offered a compromise that would limit the prohibition to state workers in positions of authority such as judges and prosecutors, but also elementary and high school teachers.

He said with 40 per cent of the population against any prohibition and 40 per cent who want a total ban, there does not appear to be any wiggle room for a deal in the coming months.

“Quebec is so divided, so polarized, there is a risk of social crisis,” Legault said.