The reaction from Gaetan Barrette over the Richard Bain verdict landed the health minister in hot water Wednesday.
On his way into a cabinet meeting, Barrette responded to a reporter who asked him for his reaction to the jury's decision to find Bain guilty of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.
He said it's not easy for jurors to come to a conclusion in such a difficult case, and he was satisfied with the outcome – but what he said next created a firestorm, because some say he appeared to suggest sovereignist rhetoric was to blame for the shooting.
“I wish it didn't happen, but that's society. When you stir things up too much, sometimes things like that could happen. It's about numbers. The more you are, the greater the chances are that something like that will happen. It's unfortunate, we don't want that to happen again, but it did. So we need to prevent that and in many ways we need to make sure that the arguments and the speeches that we give are measured,” he said.
Barrette later sent out a tweet saying he never made a link between this "regrettable incident" and any political party.
En aucun temps n'ai-je fait un lien entre ce regrettable incident et quelque parti politique que ce soit. Vous m'en voyez sincèrement désolé
— Dr Gaétan Barrette (@drgbarrette) August 24, 2016
There was a major backlash on social media.
Soon after sending out that tweet, Barrette apologized for the comments at an afternoon press conference. It had been scheduled for an announcement about a government investment for homecare, which was overshadowed by the controversy.
PQ leader Sylvain Gaudreault called on Premier Philippe Couillard to publicly denounce Barrette's comments, and PQ leadership candidate Martine Ouellet called the comment "dangerous," suggesting Barrette should resign.
