Independent MP Maria Mourani, who was booted from the Bloc Quebecois caucus after denouncing Quebec’s Values Charter, says she is no longer a sovereigntist.
“The ease with which Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms can be changed, even abolished, has convinced me of the relevance of the Canadian federal system,” Mourani writes in a letter released Wednesday afternoon.
“I have come to the conclusion that my belonging to Canada, including its Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, better protects the Quebec identity of all citizens of Quebec. I am no longer an independentist.”
Earlier Wednesday, as reporters anticipated the letter’s release, speculation about Mourani’s political future included whether she would be joining one of the other federal parties.
In an end-of-year news conference on Parliament Hill Wednesday morning, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair told reporters that Mourani was welcome to resign her seat as an MP and run in a by-election if she was interested in joining the New Democrats.
In her letter, Mourani does not address the question of whether she will join another party. But she strongly criticizes the Parti Quebecois over its “decision to hold an election on the backs of believers and against the harmony of living together in Quebec.”
“Its current political desire to exclude conspicuous believers from the public service is indicative of a change in political attitude.
“In 1977, René Levesque chose to make the Charter of the French Language fully subject to Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Today’s Parti Quebecois has chosen a different path.”
Mourani has been sitting as an independent since September, when she was expelled from the Bloc caucus for speaking out against the proposed Charter.
The legislation would ban religious icons in the public service in Quebec, and after it was unveiled in September, Mourani gave interviews in which she denounced the bill. She also co-signed a letter with a group of sovereigntists who oppose the Charter.
Bloc Leader Daniel Paille, who recently stepped down due to illness, said at the time that her views “do not reflect the position of the Bloc Quebecois.”
"The Quebec Charter of Values is far from being, as stated by Ms. Mourani an electoral process, a grave strategic error of the sovereigntist movement, or worse, a manifestation of ethnic nationalism. It is however, a necessary and fundamental approach to the Quebec nation," Paille said.
A day after she was booted from caucus, Mourani quit the party entirely, leaving the Bloc with four seats in the House of Commons.
At the time, Mourani told reporters that it was “a shock” to be treated as she was by the party, and said she would reconsider whether to continue being a part of the overall sovereignty movement.
“If there’s a (strategy) behind all this, to me, it’s not a good one,” she said of the Values Charter. “To me, for years, the independence movement has been trying to include (everyone).
“Is that time over and done with now? The nationalist movement in Quebec?”
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office did not comment directly on Mourani’s turn to federalism.
But on her position toward the Values Charter, the PMO saidthat, “at the federal level, our job is to ensure that all people who live in this country, regardless of their origin, race, ethnicity, or their religion, feel at home and are proud to be Canadian.
“We are concerned about proposals that would limit the right of everyone to practice their religion without discrimination. If a province adopts a clearly discriminatory law, it is the duty of the federal government to act to defend the constitutional rights of all Canadians regardless of their ethnicity or religion.”
In her letter, Mourani said: “There is only one category of Quebecers: those who have made Quebec their home. The Quebec identity is built on the participation of citizens in society through education; democratic and community life; associations; the media; business; politics; and especially access to employment. We are all Quebecers, without exception.
“For me, this openness and the fight against exclusion are the best tools to ensure social peace and fight against all forms of extremism and fanaticism. Despite some tensions in the independentist movement, this political vision of openness has been promoted and has even prevailed for years. That is why I joined the independentist movement that, in my eyes, was inclusive and allowed all citizens, without exception, to be the founding people of Quebec.”
Mourani said that as long as she is an MP, “I will do my best to represent my constituents and contribute to modernizing Canada.”
Maria Mourani Letter 18 Dec 2013
