Legault accuses doctors of ‘holding students and the population hostage’

Quebec Premier François Legault at a press conference in Montreal on March 4, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

Quebec Premier François Legault is urging doctors to stop “holding students and the public hostage.”

“It’s not normal that we haven’t made more progress in the negotiations, so I’m calling once again on the two doctors’ unions and the chief negotiator of one of the two unions, Lucien Bouchard, to come to the table, to propose new solutions if necessary, but to stop rejecting all solutions and defending only the status quo,” he said Wednesday in Gatineau, on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new seniors’ home in Masson-Angers.

The premier said that he will succeed where his predecessors have failed.

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“Our goal is not to fight for the sake of fighting, but to finally have a government that resolves the issue. All successive governments, whether it was the Parti Québécois government of Lucien Bouchard, Pauline Marois, Jean Charest’s Liberal government, or Philippe Couillard, who was a doctor, all governments backed down in the face of the two doctors’ unions. It’s time to give Quebecers access to services,” said Legault.

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leader once again invited the Federation of General Practitioners and the Federation of Medical Specialists to sit down at the negotiating table.

“For months, the two unions have refused to discuss, refused to negotiate, and now they are threatening, not just threatening, they are telling medical students that they will no longer give them classes. This makes no sense! I cannot believe that the unions will continue to hold students and the population hostage,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 25, 2025.

By Sébastien Auger, The Canadian Press