PQ leader’s allusion to deportations, executions a threat to social cohesion: MP
OTTAWA — A senior Quebec Liberal MP says he deplores the tone taken by the leader of the Parti Québécois, who referenced “deportations and executions” of francophones to justify the party’s push for independence.
Pablo Rodriguez, who is transport minister and the prime minister’s Quebec lieutenant, said Wednesday the comments were disappointing and worrying, adding that they hurt social cohesion.
“Execution? Deportation? We’re reaching a whole other level of language where we’re introducing violent terms.”
Rodriguez was reacting to a news conference a day earlier during which PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon described the “sad history of francophones and Indigenous Peoples in this colonial regime,” referring to deportations of Acadians beginning in 1755 and the executions in 1839 of patriots who rebelled against the British.