Lisée won’t apologize for tweet
Cloutier gets hateful messages after he’s linked to Charkaoui
Parti Québécois leadership candidate Jean-François Lisée has refused to apologize for linking his main rival to controversial Islamic activist Adil Charkaoui in a tweet.
Nevertheless, Lisée insisted the fact he removed the item he tweeted from the Internet is proof of his esteem for the candidate, Alexandre Cloutier. As for the ferocious feud it sparked and even threats against Cloutier from people who believed the connection to be real, Lisée said it was a day of the campaign he “would rather forget.”
“I am not asking for apologies, I am offering none, I am turning the page,” Lisée told reporters at a news conference following an all candidate’s debate — the fourth in the race — here in Quebec’s nationalist heartland.
Lisée balked when asked whether he went too far and twisted for his own purposes a Charkaoui Facebook comment to the effect Cloutier seems more open to newcomers than he does.
“All the facts are available on the Facebook sites of each candidate,” he said. “I am not going back into this issue. I want to talk about other things.”
The party in question, Cloutier, was not impressed.
“I would have preferred an apology, obviously,” Cloutier snapped back. “Now I always said I would leave this to his good judgment.”
He said he went public with the threats the tweet sparked — not to appear to be the victim and score sympathy votes — but because he wanted to show “there are consequences when people fail to measure the impact of their actions.”
On Saturday, Cloutier called a news conference in Montreal to complain about Lisée’s tweet, revealing provincial police had been informed and were taking the matter seriously. Cloutier now is obliged to keep police informed of his movements.
Cloutier said “violent insults” and “hateful comments” started to pour in almost immediately after the tweet went up Thursday evening. He spent Friday evening huddled in his home with his wife and children..
“Yes I was in shock,” Cloutier said Sunday. “Ask my wife if she found this funny.”
The tweet that touched off the firestorm came from Charkaoui’s anti-Islamaphobia group. It said: “Cloutier pleads for openness and renewal while Lisée digs into the identity debate and the legacy of the (Bernard) Drainville’s Islamaphobic charter.”
Lisée, who has been playing the identity politics card for about a week, picked up on the message.
Apparently retaliating for a separate attack on him by Cloutier supporter and Taschereau MNA Agnès Maltais earlier, Lisée tweeted: “Quite the offensive by the Cloutier team against me. I wonder if this orchestration foresaw the public support of imam Adil Charkaoui.”
Charkaoui, who has denied supporting or even knowing Cloutier, is suspected of having participated in the radicalization of some youths at Collège Maisonneuve.
He was arrested on a security certificate under suspicion of terrorism-related activities in 2003. He successfully challenged the certificate several years later and now lives in Montreal.
The controversy landed just in time for this debate and the tension and animosity between the two candidates was visible when they took to the stage to cross swords with each other and the other two candidates, Martine Ouellet and Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon.
Lucky for them, questions of identity and immigration were not on the list for the debate. Ouellet has accused both of flogging those issues for their own partisan reasons.
On thin ice, Lisée tried to break it by using his opening remarks to the crowd of 400 people to heap praise on Cloutier.
He mentioned a recent blog post produced by analyst Bryan Breguet who concluded — based on poll numbers and fundraising — that Cloutier has a 95 per cent chance of winning the leadership race and Lisée less than five per cent.
“This man (Cloutier) who was an extraordinary MNA, a very good minister, would be an excellent leader tomorrow,” Lisée said. “And if he (was elected leader) I would work with him to be sure his program gets implemented.”
Cloutier played to the hometown crowd. He is the MNA for the nearby riding of Lac Saint-Jean.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be home after the events of the last 48 hours,” Cloutier said.
It was only toward the end of the debate that the two — for the benefit of a party unhappy to see itself so badly split — pretended to kiss and make up.
Answering a question from the audience about party unity, Cloutier said it’s a coming together after the leadership race that is critical in his mind.
Then — in a surprise move — he offered to buy Lisée dinner.
“One or two bottles,” Cloutier asked, chuckling at Lisée. “Two,” Lisée responded.
Cloutier tried to position himself as the peacemaker.
“Our real responsibility is to replace the Liberal government in the next two years,” Cloutier added. “And were going to do it with the intelligence of Jean-François, the newness of Paul and the determination of Martine Ouellet.”
Hearing his name on Cloutier’s list, Lisée piped up: “So we’re good?
The news conferences that followed proved otherwise.