Legault calls on Quebec party leaders to boycott Facebook owner Meta

QUEBEC CITY -

Premier François Legault is calling on Québec solidaire (QS) and the Quebec Liberals to stop buying Facebook ads, even though he doesn't rule out the possibility that his own party will buy some as well.

The parties had agreed in July to a boycott of Meta's platforms, in support of Quebec media, but QS and the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) are reversing their decision, citing the ongoing by-election in Jean-Talon.

For their part, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) and the Parti québécois (PQ) are continuing the boycott, denouncing what they describe as a lack of solidarity and fairness.

The PQ even tabled a motion on Tuesday afternoon calling on the parties to stand together and not buy ads on Meta, but QS and the PLQ did not give consent to debate it.

QS and the PLQ have paid for ads on Meta platforms to get their candidates elected, and intend to continue doing so between now and the Oct. 2 vote.

"Our media are suffering because of Facebook," recalled the premier at a press scrum on Tuesday during the first day of the parliamentary session in Quebec City.

"I think it's important that all parties boycott Facebook advertising," he said, calling for fairness in the Jean-Talon election campaign.

Meta is a "powerful tool" for contacting voters, the CAQ leader acknowledged.

"It doesn't make sense that there are two parties -- the Liberal Party and Québec solidaire -- that use Meta, and then there are two others, the Parti québécois and the CAQ, that don't. It's really not fair," Legault said.

He said his party was going to have to "ask itself the question" because it was "really unfair."

The boycott was launched following Meta's decision to block the sharing of Canadian media articles on its platforms.

QS had to defend itself on Tuesday for having spent on advertising on Meta's platforms, after having suggested in July that it would not encourage Facebook until further notice.

According to parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, in the context of the by-election in Jean-Talon, these platforms are essential for contacting voters, and symbolic gestures don't provide a solution.

"We're going to continue to place ads [on Facebook]," he said at a press briefing in Quebec City. "I think all this just goes to show that symbolic gestures won't solve our problem."

This is how he was able to answer "no" to the question of whether boycotts are useless, but at the same time assert that they have their "limits" and don't provide a solution.

The QS spokesman also refuses to be lectured by Communications Minister Mathieu Lacombe, who on Monday roundly condemned the QS U-turn, as did the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM).

"There are interests that are greater than your party interests," CCMM president Michel Leblanc said in an interview with Québecor.

"I'm telling you that finger-pointing and symbolic demonstrations have a big, big limit and won't solve our problem," insisted Nadeau-Dubois.

Instead, QS is calling for "structuring solutions" from the Quebec government, such as taxing the web giants.

The PQ, which continues its boycott of Meta, doubts QS' sense of ethics and denounced its lack of solidarity.

"Our media are dying of a lack of revenue, it's the pillar of democracy, and then you have political parties who, to make a small gain of 1 per cent or 2 per cent in a by-election, are ready to abandon all their principles and then abandon our Quebec media in favour of a multinational," condemned PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a press scrum.

"I'm talking specifically about Québec solidaire, in solidarity with the GAFAM multinationals. It's indefensible in my eyes. We have to stand united and ensure that our Quebec media are viable in the face of these unscrupulous giants.

In fact, the PQ tabled a motion in the National Assembly proposing that elected representatives "show solidarity with our national and regional media, which have seen their advertising revenues diverted to Meta platforms."

The motion asked parties not to buy ads or sponsor publications on Meta right now, and not to use these platforms this Friday -- a day of boycott organized by the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ) and the Société québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques.

QS and the PLQ refused to debate the issue.

The Quebec Liberal Party also said it would not end its Facebook advertising campaigns until the supplementary election on Oct. 2.

Interim leader Marc Tanguay pointed out that 88 per cent of Quebecers are on Facebook, and that it's important to be able to connect with these voters.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 12, 2023.