Former premier Lucien Bouchard has blasted the Parti Quebecois at a public forum, saying that sovereignty is not achievable while accusing the PQ of lacking openness towards immigrants and cultural minorities.

Bouchard, in Quebec City for an event organized by Le Devoir newspaper, said the PQ needs to focus on education, the economy and energy issues rather than divisive matters like accommodation of immigrants.

"The Parti Quebecois seems to want to replace the ADQ's radical niche," said Bouchard, referring to the right-leaning party that the PQ has replaced as official opposition.

Bouchard said the PQ has sacrificed some of its humanistic values by focusing excessively on questions of French cultural identity, something he said PQ founder Rene Levesque would have denounced.

"Rene Levesque was a generous man," said Bouchard. "He was not afraid to see immigrants arrive (here)."

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His comments were summed up in a front-page headline Wednesday in Le Devoir: Sovereignty is no longer achievable, Bouchard says.

Not only is independence on the shelf but it's not something Quebecers should be focusing on, Bouchard said during the forum.

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Another close ally of Bouchard's said he was convinced, after spending thousands of hours working with the man, that he believed in the cause of independence.

But Bernard Landry admitted he found the remarks troubling.

"I learned about it this morning. But if I'd learned about it last night I wouldn't have slept," Bernard Landry, the man who replaced Bouchard as premier, said in an interview.

"(Bouchard) is a great and complex man. . . This deeply disappoints me."

Landry and other sovereigntists defended their cause, and said they will continue fighting for it even if Bouchard won't.

Leader Pauline Marois, when asked whether her predecessor had become one of her party's notorious armchair quarterbacks (the expression used in Quebec is "mother-in-law" -- or "belle mere") she said he had.

But Marois said she still speaks to her old boss regularly.

"He's a man I respect a lot," she said. "I disagree with his opinion."

Rare public appearance

Bouchard, 71, was a federal cabinet minister under Brian Mulroney before quitting the party in 1990 to form the sovereigntist Bloc Quebecois. He was the face of the Yes side in the runup to the 1995 referendum, where his charismatic speeches helped push the Yes forces to the brink of victory before they fell just short of 50 per cent support.

Bouchard jumped into provincial politics in 1996, serving as premier until 2001. He has been largely absent from the public eye since then.

But he broke his silence this week to appear at the public debate organized by Le Devoir, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Sovereignty

Bouchard said he is still a sovereigntist and that the PQ and the Bloc are still relevant as political parties.

But he also said the PQ would be making a mistake if it promised a third referendum on Quebec independence.

"Pauline Marois doesn't want to call another referendum because she knows that it's not the time," said Bouchard, adding that it would take "many years to solve the problems that we're facing."

- With files from the Canadian Press -