CAQ calls for de-politicizing the Fete Nationale

The Coalition Avenir Quebec wants to stop hearing from sovereignists during Quebec's Fete Nationale.

CAQ MNA Benoit Charette said on Thursday that is it time for control of Fete Nationale parties to be removed from the Mouvement National de Quebecois (MNQ).

According to Charette the presence of numerous separatists at the upper levels of the MNQ affects all aspects of the celebrations organized by the group.

Since 1984, the provincial government has given MNQ the mandate to coordinate Fete Nationale parties at 700 sites throughout the province.

Charette, the MNA for Deux-Montagnes, gave the example of the party in his own riding last year where separatist propaganda played a dominant role.

According to Charette the Fete Nationale should be apolitical since it is paid for entirely by Quebec taxpayers, the majority of whom are not sovereignists. 

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  Deux-Montagnes MLA Benoit Charette announces he leaves the Parti Quebecois caucus to sit as an independant, at a news conference Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at the legislature in Quebec City. Charette is the fifth Parti Quebecois caucus in less than a month. (Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS)