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<\/p>\nThe Quebec government has deposited a draft of a proposed provincial constitution which the premier says will “affirm Quebec\u2019s distinct national character.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The constitution, filed at the National Assembly on Thursday and lambasted by opposition parties as a piece of political theatre filed without proper consultation, includes language asserting Quebec\u2019s “constitutional autonomy,\u201d and lists its \u201cfounding principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the founding principles are state protection of the equality of men and women, French as the province’s official language and the rejection of \u201cCanadian multiculturalism\u201d in favour of a \u201cnational integration\u201d model.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuebec has made the choice to stay inside Canada but it has also made the choice to affirm its distinct national character,\u201d Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Legault added that the constitution respects the rights of Indigenous people and the institutions of English-speaking Quebecers.<\/p>\n
Quebec’s culture and language are threatened in North America, he says, adding that the government must ensure their survival for future generations.<\/p>\n
Legault says the draft constitution is the culmination of all the measures his government has taken to strengthen Quebec values, including the secularism law and the French language reform.<\/p>\n
But the Liberal Opposition says the government failed to consult with them and that a constitution should reflect all Quebecers.<\/p>\n
“A Quebec constitution should be the work of a people, of a nation, not of a political party or a premier who dreams of making history,” said Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy.<\/p>\n
She said her party is in favour of a Quebec constitution in principle, but that the government should instead be focussing on issues like the economy, housing, education and health care.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Quebec premier looks to regain voter confidence:<\/p>\n
A Quebec constitution: the Legault government\u2019s shot at an enduring legacy<\/p>\n
Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault is hoping to woo voters and enshrine some of his government\u2019s legislative achievements by drafting a constitution. His justice minister has tabled Bill 1 of the new legislative session at the National Assembly, but opposition parties are slamming the CAQ government for not properly consulting Quebecers on such a significant proposal. <\/p>\n
Ruba Ghazal, spokesperson of Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire, said Quebec needs to separate from Canada to be truly autonomous, and she accused the CAQ government of being “just as federalist as the Liberals.”<\/p>\n
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, who was absent from the National Assembly on Thursday to speak to students at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Chicoutimi, accused the CAQ of tabling their bill on a day when they knew he would be gone. <\/p>\n
“We received no phone call, no email, no text message to notify us of the date the bill would be tabled. If this was such a ‘historic’ moment, if this wasn\u2019t a CAQ constitution, if this wasn\u2019t a partisan exercise, the least they could have done was notify us,” he wrote in a social media post. <\/p>\n
He said he would take time to read the proposed constitution and comment in the coming days.<\/p>\n
A ‘very sad day for democracy,’ lawyer says<\/p>\n
The draft constitution would also forbid organizations that get public funding, such as school boards, from using portions of provincial government grants to pay for court challenges of laws deemed to protect “the fundamental characteristics of Quebec.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The provision is a direct response to legal challenges of Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21, and its French-language reform, Bill 96.<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric B\u00e9rard, a constitutional lawyer, criticized that provision as draconian in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very sad day for democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never seen something like this in Quebec. Even Donald Trump never thought of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The constitution bill would also have the Quebec premier recommend who should be appointed the province’s lieutenant-governor.<\/p>\n
Lieutenant-governors are currently appointed by the governor general on the recommendation of the prime minister. The new legislation would also rename the lieutenant-governor the “officer of Quebec.”<\/p>\n
The Quebec premier would also make recommendations for Quebec senators and Supreme Court judges to the prime minister, according to the new bill.<\/p>\n
The bill comes as Legault’s Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec party is lagging in the polls ahead of a provincial election scheduled for October 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Quebec government has deposited a draft of a proposed provincial constitution which the premier says will “affirm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-213581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}