{"id":861395,"date":"2026-09-26T13:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T13:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861395\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T13:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T13:32:11","slug":"quebec-premier-warns-of-u-s-attempts-to-sow-division-ahead-of-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861395\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec premier warns of U.S. attempts to sow division ahead of election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec leader Christine Fr\u00e9chette speaks at the Federation quebecois des Municipalities in Quebec City on Friday.Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette is warning of U.S. attempts to sow division between the province and Canada less than two weeks from an election that could see the sovereigntist Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois come to power. <\/p>\n

She was responding to media reports saying the federal government has warned Ms. Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government about possible U.S. interference in the Quebec election aiming to help elect sovereigntists.<\/p>\n

The Premier also said on Friday that U.S. authorities sought a separate trade deal with Quebec around sensitive sectors such as aluminum earlier this year. Ms. Fr\u00e9chette said she rejected the deal in order to maintain a common front with the rest of Canada amidst tense negotiations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an approach in the spring to attempt to have an agreement with us, Quebec,\u201d Ms. Fr\u00e9chette told reporters Friday. \u201cWhen my team told me that, I closed the door right away. It\u2019s not possible to think that Quebec would conclude an agreement with the U.S. on our own, and in any case it wouldn\u2019t respond to the needs of Quebec. We need to have a comprehensive agreement. It\u2019s important to keep a united front and to join our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quebec party leaders square off in final debate<\/a><\/p>\n

In a separate statement also released Friday, Ms. Fr\u00e9chette said there is no proof of interference in the province\u2019s electoral process. She said her government became aware last Saturday of a U.S. think-tank document proposing to break up Canada by supporting Quebec independence, including by helping to elect the PQ and offering the province its own trade deal. <\/p>\n

The relatively obscure think tank Defense Analyses and Research Corporation, or DARC, published the document in February. <\/p>\n

She said her government met with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about it on Wednesday, and that she was only addressing intelligence matters publicly because of the media reports. <\/p>\n

CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam issued a statement that said the agency provided briefings about foreign interference to all political parties in Quebec, which he said is now standard practice when a provincial or federal campaign is called.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetecting and deterring foreign interference, and protecting our democratic processes, is core to CSIS\u2019 mandate,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe remain vigilant against foreign interference and espionage threats coming from any foreign actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Premier told reporters she is seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney to shed light on the situation. <\/p>\n

The Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cor media chain reported on Friday that the federal government informed the Quebec government about the think-tank publication earlier this month in a secret meeting. <\/p>\n

In the document, a pseudonymous author suggests funding for the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, along with \u201cbehind-closed-doors trade negotiations with the PQ where the United States commits to offering lower tariffs on Quebec than on the rest of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowded political landscape leaves Quebec voters lukewarm as election nears<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday, Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon denied receiving any foreign assistance and questioned the timing of the media leaks, with his party leading in the polls shortly before election day on Oct. 5. <\/p>\n

He told reporters he had \u201cnever heard of\u201d DARC before Friday. <\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said at a news conference in Ottawa that the federal government is taking the issue very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting our democracy is of the utmost importance to our country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that she will speak with her U.S. counterpart, Marco Rubio, after reviewing evidence of the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I have not seen the evidence,\u201d Ms. Anand said.<\/p>\n

Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa\u2019s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said it\u2019s possible there is more to the federal warnings about election interference in Quebec than is publicly known. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the irrelevance of that group, and the amateurishness of some of the recommendations in that report, it makes me wonder if there are other aspects to what was detected,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

It is too early to draw clear parallels with the pro-separatist disinformation campaigns directed at the continuing Alberta referendum campaign, some of it from U.S. sources, he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe one coherent element here, the one parallel, is that our assumptions are shattered,\u201d said Prof. Juneau. \u201cWhatever exactly is going on, the simple fact that we\u2019re thinking about this should tell us, if anyone still had any doubts, that relations with the United States are not what they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reports from The Canadian Press, Mercedes Stephenson and Maura Forrest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec leader Christine Fr\u00e9chette speaks at the Federation quebecois des Municipalities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,79,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-861395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861395","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=861395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}