Quebec politician offers mea culpa for comments on racism in provincial legislature

Québec solidaire finance critic Haroun Bouazzi speaks after the tabling of the provincial budget, at the legislature in Quebec City, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. A Quebec MNA says he doesn’t believe members of the provincial legislature are racist, even as his party prepares to face criticism from all sides for controversial comments he made earlier this month. (Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press)

A Quebec legislature member says he doesn’t think his colleagues at the national assembly are racist, as his party prepares to face criticism from all sides for controversial comments he made earlier this month.

Following an emergency caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Haroun Bouazzi published a statement on social media saying he will continue to represent the left-leaning Québec solidaire.

"In this sense, I join them in saying that I do not consider that the national assembly and its members are racist and that this is not the party's position," he wrote on the social media platform X. Bouazzi also apologized to two cabinet ministers he singled out in an interview last week.

The mea culpa came as the other three parties, including the governing Coalition Avenir Québec, prepared to form a united front on Tuesday afternoon by tabling motions at the legislature denouncing remarks Bouazzi made during a speech to the Fondation Club Avenir, a community group that works with immigrants.

“God knows I see this in the national assembly every day, the construction of this other, this other who is North African, who is Muslim, who is Black, who is Indigenous, and whose culture, by definition, would be dangerous or inferior,” Bouazzi told the audience earlier this month.

He was called to order by the party's two co-spokespeople, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Ruba Ghazal, who claimed that his statements were “clumsy, exaggerated and polarizing." But Bouazzi didn't back down, and during a radio interview on Radio-Canada Friday, he accused ministers Christian Dubé and Lionel Carmant of blaming immigrants for putting strain on health care and social services.

In his statement on Tuesday, Bouazzi apologized to Dubé and Carmant and said his comments were "certainly clumsy."

The Coalition Avenir Québec has drafted a motion demanding that Mr. Bouazzi withdraw his remarks and apologize to all members of the legislature “who were targeted by his accusations of racism." The opposition Liberals and Parti Québécois have also drafted motions calling on the legislature to affirm that its members are not racist.

Ahead of the meeting Tuesday morning, Québec solidaire MNA Christine Labrie was asked if Mr. Bouazzi should stay in caucus. “Haroun will make his own decisions,” she said. "What I can tell you is that his comments make me extremely uncomfortable. I do not share them."

“We do not subscribe to the notion that the members of the national assembly are racist at Québec solidaire,” she added.

No caucus members would answer questions from reporters following the emergency meeting.

Party members gathered at a convention on Sunday appeared to be divided on the issue. Eleven Québec solidaire constituency associations publicly supported Bouazzi and called on the party to adopt a resolution denouncing what they described as a smear campaign against him.

The party eventually adopted an emergency resolution stating that Québec solidaire does not believe the national assembly and its members are racist, but also condemning the hate directed at Bouazzi following his comments. After the vote, Nadeau-Dubois said he considered the matter to be closed.  

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.