Former Bloc MP Maria Mourani joins NDP

CTV Montreal: Separatist renounces movement Many Quebec sovereignists are voicing displeasure over Maria Mourani's shift to federalism, Cindy Sherwin reports.

MP Maria Mourani, who was kicked out of the Bloc Quebecois following her opposition to the Charter of Values proposed by the Parti Quebecois, is joining the NDP.

NDP leader Tom Mulcair and Mourani made the official announcement Wednesday morning in Ottawa. Mourani will not sit with the NDP caucus until elected under the NDP banner, according to the party's policy.

The Montreal MP reportedly approached the Liberal party, but was turned down because of her views with regards to Israel.

Mourani was a lifelong separatist who was first elected in 2006, but began to have a change of heart when the PQ began promoting its Charter of Values.

In September 2013, Mourani spoke out against the supposedly secular values legislation, saying it was a demonstration that the independence movement was rejecting Quebecers with religious and ethnic backgrounds.

She was subsequently thrown out of the Bloc and after months of soul-searching made a public declaration that the separatist cause had become a tool to exclude and divide Quebecers.

Mourani also said at the time that she now realized that federalism was the only way to protect the rights of minorities.

The Bloc, which had five MPs in 2013, has subsequently fractured and now has only two sitting MPs.