Referendum may never be wanted: Marois
PQ LEADER ADMITS
it could happen that Quebecers might never be ready to vote on sovereignty, but she talks tough about values charter firings and a language crackdown on federally regulated employees.
Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois admitted Wednesday that Quebecers might never be ready for another referendum on Quebec independence.
She also said, for the first time, that public-sector employees who do not comply with her government’s proposed Charter of Quebec Values could lose their jobs — but her government would strive to help those people “re-orient” their careers.
And in yet another twist in her party’s increasingly tough talk on identity, Marois said a PQ government would extend Bill 101 rules on working in French to federally-regulated employers, such as banks, broadcasters and transportation companies.
In a morning radio interview with Paul Arcand on Montreal’s 98.5fm, Marois said “it could happen” that Quebecers might not ever be ready to vote on sovereignty.
“I want to win next time,” she said. “I want to win together with Quebecers.
“We won’t hold one if we think it can’t be won,” she said, adding that a third referendum defeat is “not what I want.”
Arcand also quizzed Marois on her affirmation that no one would lose their jobs in Quebec’s public sector if the PQ’s Charter of Quebec Values becomes law.
Marois is campaigning for a majority government so her government can enact the charter of secular values.
Evèlyne Abitbol, a former media relations officer for Concordia University and the Bloc Québécois, running for the PQ in north-end Acadie riding, said on Tuesday that a Jewish doctor who refused to remove his kippa would be fired.
“That is not what we want,” Marois said.
Marois said there would be discussions with public employees who wear religious signs, contrary to Section 5 of the values charter, which imposes the ban as a condition of employment and hiring for all 600,000 people working in Quebec’s civil service, hospitals, schools and other publicfunded entities, including the courts and prisons.
If someone in Quebec’s public sector refuses to go along with the ban on religious signs, the government will “help them re-orient” their career outside the public sector, Marois said, noting the values charter does not apply to the private sector.
“OK. They will find a job somewhere else,” Arcand concluded.
Marois said later the values charter will include transition periods, and in some cases, renewable exemptions, but that the aim of the charter is that people working in Quebec’s public sector be neutral in dress, reflecting the religious neutrality of the Quebec state.
Abitbol and Marois’s remarks were a stark contrast to a vow made Monday by Jean-François Lisée, when the minister responsible for Montreal and the anglophone community told The Gazette no one would lose their jobs as a result of the charter.
At a second news conference Wednesday, Marois said her government would do whatever is necessary to extend provisions of Bill 101 to federally regulated employers.
“If we have to legislate, we will legislate.”
To encourage immigration, particularly from francophone countries in North Africa, a PQ government would help them have their academic and professional qualifications recognized,
“We won’t hold one if we think it can’t be won.” PAULINE MAROIS ON ANOTHER INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM
offering loans if they need to take courses here to upgrade their qualifications.
Lisée, who is also the minister for international relations, said Quebec is doing better than Ontario and British Columbia at integrating newcomers into the job market and he plans an anti-racism campaign to help them get hired in Quebec, addressing a problem raised by Quebec’s human rights commission.
On Tuesday, Marois said her party does not use “borrowed names” to get illegal funding from engineering firms.
Early Wednesday, she brushed aside admissions by two top executives of engineering consulting firm AXOR that their names were borrowed to funnel donations into Marois’s 2007 leadership campaign.
Le Soleil reported on Wednesday that Jacques Grenier, president and CEO of AXOR, and Maurice Choquette, the firm’s financial controller, say their identity was used illegally to contribute to the Marois leadership campaign.
“No,” said Marois, when asked if this contradicted her affirmation that the PQ does not use borrowed names.
The PQ leader said AXOR “made a mistake” and when it came to light, the PQ reimbursed the money.
“Look me i n the eyes.” Marois said i n her radio interview with Paul Arcand.
“Never, never, never,” she said, did the PQ ask AXOR to contribute to her campaign.
Arcand suggested that was “voluntary blindness” on the part of Marois, recalling that Ginette Boivin, who headed the PQ’s fundraising efforts until September 2007, collected money from companies whose employees lent their names by writing personal cheques that were reimbursed.
In Quebec, only voters, not companies, can give to political parties and their donations cannot be reimbursed.
“Ginette Boivin was sanctioned,” Marois said. “She left the party.”
AXOR pleaded guilty in 2010 to 40 counts of illegal donations using borrowed names, between 2006 and 2008, totalling $152,500 to the PQ, the Quebec Liberals and Action démocratique du Québec.